A woman has spoken out after she and her two children were caught up in Victoria’s underworld tobacco war when a shop below their apartment was firebombed on Monday.
Sheree Shefket and her daughters were at home in Port Melbourne when arsonists hit a hair salon just metres away.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Family caught in between Melbourne’s tobacco war
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A Porsche SUV was driven into the Bay St shop about 1.30am, with the salon then set alight.
Smoke from the fire quickly filled Shefket’s apartment and her family struggled to find their way out.
“We tried to get out the front and couldn’t. There was just a lot of smoke,” Shefket told 7NEWS.com.au.
“(I) grabbed the kids, just whatever had, clothes, our PJ’s.
“It was a nightmare to be honest.”
Shefket’s young daughter Gia said: “I thought this whole place was going to explode.”
The family were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation.
The Port Melbourne fire was one of three suspected arson attacks in Melbourne on Monday morning.
A tobacco store in Cairnlea was also targeted as was a home in Thomastown connected to underworld figure Suleiman “Sam” Abdulrahim.
Police are investigating if the three are connected.
Since October, there have been 97 arson attacks in Melbourne. A total of 77 were on tobacco shops.
Shefket said it’s only a matter of time until innocent people are caught in the crossfire of the ongoing underworld war.
“We are very lucky to have survived this (the fire),” she said.
“There are going to be lives that are going to be taken because of people’s poor choices.”
– With Molly Magennis