It's not long until the lunchtime rush and Thai Le is preparing dish number four on his menu, Hokkien Mee, when he sees the smoke.
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His restaurant is full of customers, like most of the noodle bars, pho joints and Vietnamese bakeries on Springvale Road typically are not long before noon on a Friday.
Then it happens.
"I ran straight across the road, telling all the cars to stop," he said.
About 40 metres way, just across the main strip of Springvale, a man has walked into a Commonwealth Bank branch, poured petrol everywhere and the place has gone up in flames.
Next door to Restaurant 323 are two broad-shouldered tradesmen working in a trench.
Ashley Atkin-Fone hears a massive explosion and rushes across to help, picking up a fire extinguisher to help douse the blaze consuming the front of the bank, where the ATMs are.
"I got the fire out, took four steps inside and I was shouting and shouting but couldn't hear anyone," he said later.
His workmate, Adam Coulshed, initially thought the loud bang was a car accident, then "it was just black and there were people with blood".
About 10 minutes before the blast, a man in an orange high-vis shirt is caught on CCTV of a popular shisha bar, Cafe Asmara, picking up a container and walking in the direction of a Caltex service station.
At 11.22am, the man returns, walks past the cafe and heads towards the bank.
Minutes later, Springvale Road is a haze of smoke as the entrance to the bank goes up in flames.
Victims pour out the front of the bank, covered in burns and desperate to escape the fire. Some get out through the back door.
They suck in as much oxygen as they can.The scene is terrible, as emergency vehicles rush to assist. In the end, 27 people are taken to hospital, six in a life-threatening condition.
A toddler and two people in their 80s are among the victims. One flees the horror, northwards to the railway station, covered in blood and with his skin ravaged by flames. Both the chef and tradie mention his skin.
"His face was terrible," Mr Atkin-Fone said. "He was screaming at the top of his voice. I've never heard anything like it."
The man who allegedly lit the fire, meanwhile, has left the scene and is later found around the back of the strip of shops.
Amid the carnage, he has also suffered injuries after setting himself on fire, and is taken to hospital under police guard.
Within minutes, one of Melbourne's busiest suburban shopping strips is nearly deserted.
Police close off all four lanes of Springvale Road, leaving a large perimeter as locals milled around trying to make sense of what happened.
Some shops close their doors, others remain open but their trade is diminished.
The post office, typically with a queue outside the door on a Friday afternoon, is empty.
Most shoppers seemed to have stayed away, after hearing of the apparently random destruction.
In the immediate aftermath, police also try to make sense of what took place.
The local acting police inspector, Jackie Poida, gives very little away to a massive press pack and the curious onlookers who have gathered alongside them.
She can only say that an "accelerant" was used in the fire and that the arson squad are investigating.
No motive is initially apparent, although some witnesses suggested the man may have been after money.
What is clear is that it could have been much worse.
"I'm just glad that everyone got out," Mr Atkin-Fone said.
