Firefighters smashed their way into a burning barbershop to rescue men seen “trapped” inside – only to come face-to-face with lifesize mannequins of Al Pacino and 80s horror spook Pinhead.
Owner Will Robertson, who has a collection of ghoulish figures at his Perth city centre store, said the Hollywood pair may have been mistaken for real people standing inside the smoke-filled salon.
And he told The Courier he thought he had been firebombed by Harry Potter fans, furious at reports that the salon was allegedly “tagged” by the actor who plays Slytherin villain Gregory Goyle on his recent visit to the city.
Video of the fire is above this article
“I saw the front door had been smashed, and the first thing I thought was that someone had come after us because of the Harry Potter business,” he said.
It later emerged that the blaze at the Sweeney Todd store on Wednesday night was not started deliberately, but was sparked by an exploding appliance at the back of the shop.
Two fire crews from Perth were scrambled to the South Street store just after 6.30pm.
It came just days after the shop made headlines when The Courier revealed it may have been vandalised by Harry Potter actor Joshua Herdman.
The star, who was out on the town with his Slytherin co-star Jamie “Crabbe” Waylett was caught on CCTV writing on the wall of the neighbouring Auld Hoose pub.
Mr Robertson, 44, said the fire didn’t cause much damage.
“It seemed to be a fault with a steamer in the store,” he said. “It looks like it exploded and burst into flames.
“Someone had been looking at our window display of Harry Potter models when they noticed smoke rising inside,” he said. “Then they saw flames at the back wall.
“When the firefighters turned up, they were told there might be people inside the shop because you could see these figures standing in the smoke.
“They used a hammer to smash through the door. Once they were inside, they would have found my mannequins, like Pinhead from the Hellraiser films. That must have been very confusing.”
The fire was extinguished within half-an-hour.
“Luckily none of the models were damaged,” he said. “The Al Pacino one was standing near to where the fire started and that’s very rare, it’s one of just two in existence. It was used to promote Scarface in the 1980s.
“Thankfully, there’s only a bit of smoke damage to clear up and I hope to be back up and running soon.”
Actor Herdman was filmed scribbling on the wall of the Auld Hoose. A similar tag was also found outside Mr Robertson’s barber shop.
