Amid the aftermath of the huge fire yesterday at the One Station Hill development, local businesses are just starting to pick themselves back up, with many still experiencing little to no business.

Owner of Shed Coffee Peter Hefferan that they are still dealing with a lack of access to their café due to Garrard Road being closed. Shed is situated in Merchant’s Place

“The street is closed so delivery drivers can’t get to us,” he said.

“It’s like a ghost town today, it’s been really quiet. I can’t tell for sure how the rest of the day will pan out, but at the moment I think it’s going to be quiet.”

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Mr Hefferan explained that a lot of Shed’s customers are on flexible working, so many probably have decided not to come into work today due to the road closures of the day prior.

He continued: “The most important thing is no one was hurt. The loss of trade is manageable as long as no one was injured. But it would be nice to get that road opened.”

Businesses on Friar Street have also been affected by yesterday’s fire. The manager at Totally Wicked Vapes Kola Kingdom said that they missed their Black Friday deliveries due to the road’s closure.

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“We had a massive delivery coming yesterday for Black Friday which was due around 2 pm,” she said. “But they couldn’t get to us because the road was closed.

“We are only open in the daytime, and I only got informed of the fire by a regular who ran into the shop.”

“My shop is pretty flammable, and my fire exit is down by where the fire was.”

After having to evacuate her store, upon returning to business Ms Kingdom said that the shop was “dead” all day.

Ms Kingdom said that her shop is seeing mainly regulars this promotional Black Friday, as the general public isn’t aware of their discounts because of the undelivered stock.

Despite many shops and food places clearly experiencing a significant number of losses, some said that their business ran as normal all afternoon.

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Tina and Yzza from Eyesite Opticians said that they only had to make one cancellation all day, and that many of their patients travelled to them on foot despite the road closure.

“We had quite a normal afternoon,” Tina said. “One person cancelled because the buses weren’t running, but that was it really.

“Thank goodness no one was seriously hurt.”