Rakesh Kumar, who runs Eversley Stores- the old Cadbury shop- along with his wife Sarah, was called during the early hours after a fire was lit at the side of his shop, causing significant damage to the building.
Although thankfully, the inside of the store itself wasn’t damaged, Mr Kumar said that had the flames managed to get through the side door, the entire building would have been lost.
Mr Kumar said his CCTV showed that, in the early hours of Christmas morning, a man entered the gate at the side of the store on Worcester Road, in Malvern Link, before heading towards the gas connection near the door.
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He added the CCTV showed just 45 seconds after the man entered the gate, flames had broken out.
Minutes later, according to Mr Kumar, an explosion at the side of the store was seen by people at the Nag’s Head pub, prompting the police and fire brigade.
Mr Kumar told the Gazette that he and his wife work 364 days a year, with Christmas being his one day of rest- but that was ruined by this act of arson.
He added: “The frustration is that somebody decided to do that, it’s not like this was an accident.
“We don’t have a problem with anybody, I don’t know why this would happen.
“Malvern is not that type of place, when things like that happened the community comes together.
“I hope whoever did this is arrested soon and doesn’t do it to anybody else.”
The windows, doors, gutters and signs on the side of the building have all been destroyed or badly damaged by the flames, as has the neighbours fence.
However, Mr Kumar has been able to open his shop as normal and has since had a new gas connection installed.
Police and fire crews were called out at 2am on Christmas Day to deal with the incident that was very close to the mains gas pipe.
A spokesperson for Malvern SNT said: “A male was seen walking down the side of the shop.
“It was also very close to a mains gas pipe.
“The fire has caused significant damage to the building. Luckily, nobody was hurt.
“We believe the male has walked from the Malvern Link area and continued towards Link Top.
“If anyone saw anything they think may help us with our enquiries or if anyone has any CCTV or ring doorbell footage that would help.”
Call 101 or email linkanddyson.snt@westmercia.police.uk quoting incident number: 00036_I_25122024 if you have any information.