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Small businesses are beefing up security and preparing for the worst after the latest in a string of fires in Eaglehawk.
Sarah Wainwright of eCruise & Travel said she was already looking at how to best protect her business last night after police revealed yesterday they were investigating potential links between six fires in Eaglehawk during the past week.
So when she heard about a deliberate fire overnight at a local primary school the travel agent was shocked.
“Oh my god… that is a bit scary, especially as they appear to be deliberate and connected,” Ms Wainwright said.
“They’re getting more and more game and already there’s been serious damage...
“And if they’re getting more game and more brazen, then what’s to say they won’t try to light a building like this on fire?”
It is a situation for which Ms Wainwright is now preparing.
While insurance would help cover costs, a recent IT incident in which swathes of files were deleted has Ms Wainwright more than aware of the non-financial costs of bouncing back from disaster.
“After that it was months and months of plugging the files back into the computer … which was not fun at all,” she said.
“The fires do make you think about what you can do for security – backing up computers, ensuring you take copy off site when we leave, don’t leave important files laying around in drawers, don’t leave things laying around at night, we’ll be looking at bringing the bins inside from now on…
“We do have fireproof safe and so we try to put some sensitive things in there… but if there is ever going to be a blazing fire then who knows?”