by Sahar Foladi
The family behind popular Noble Park North business Don Fernando’s Churros and Pizza is determined to come back stronger after their shop was gutted by a suspicious fire next door.
Three shops and two cars caught ablaze in a suspicious ram-raid fire at Heyington Crescent about 2am on Friday 19 July.
Fernando Cianciarulo, who owns the pizza store, has lived and raised his family in the neighbourhood for the past 40 years overall.
“We were originally supplying churros to the food trucks but 2020 came around – there weren’t that many food trucks, they went broke during Covid.”
They opened up the shop to “give something back to the community”.
“We’ve been living here for a long time, and people always complained there wasn’t anywhere nice to go, to sit down for a coffee.
“It’s like we’re kind of forgotten because we’re not one of the nicest suburbs I suppose.”
The quiet neighbourhood, mainly comprising senior residents, had just received some renewed buzz as the shopping strip shops started to improve and “clean themselves up.”
“We had a goal in mind that people in the community would come around to cheer us on. That they would tell us this place was falling apart and you’re turning it into something good.
“With limited funds and whilst working somewhere else trying to keep the money coming in for the daily expenses, both of my sons helped me out. We used as much help as we could to get the shop running,” Mr Cianciarulo said.
“We put a lot of work in it as a family. My wife really pushed us to make it a nice place for our community. We went a year of doing well so it’s sad to see our efforts end up like this.”
The business was not covered by insurance making the situation even more dire for the family, but Mr Cianciarulo and his son Tobias aren’t ready to let go just yet after only a year in business.
“We really love this place and what we turned it into. We don’t want to let it go right now. It’s going to come back one way or the other,” Tobias said.
The public seem to have enjoyed the “generous and fresh toppings” of the pizza and the “beautiful churros” as evident by many five-star ratings on Google Reviews.
With Victoria Police closing off the store as part of its investigation on 19 July, the family were unaware of the full extent of damage.
Evidently, the half-burnt store sign is missing its ‘Fernando,’ the roller shutter at the main entrance and the entire window is gone exposing a blackened ceiling and wall.
What used to be a music studio and an office space next door is now a charred hollow building with loose infrastructure hanging.
Shocked and upset neighbours walked out to comfort the family and passed on their apologies as they looked on at the heartbreaking scene.
Theo Andasi has been living in the neighbourhood for the past 15 years and says this is the worst incident he’s seen.
“If we wanted a change to get a pizza or chips, we would go to Don Fernando’s and just to even say hello.
“This is ridiculous. We’ve never had any of this.”
City of Greater Dandenong Council’s executive director of city futures Sanjay Manivasagasivam said council will continue to cooperate with Victoria Police and the business owners “to support them as the investigation continues.”
“Our thoughts are with the businesses and community members impacted by this morning’s fire on Heyington Crescent in Noble Park North.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up by Mr Cianciarulo which has since garnered half of the goal amount of $10,000 to go towards the renovation of his family store.
gofundme.com/f/help-save-argentinian-pizza-shop-from-arson-attack
