The timbers are still exposed and blackened, while the shops below remain in a state of suspended animation, waiting for their owners to return.

And Rebecca Boo knows that day will come.

It’s been just over a month since the Lavant Street fire, the most severe in Petersfield for decades.

She and her colleagues watched in disbelief as the fire which started in a flat above her award-winning House of Boo took hold and spread through the rafters.

Rebecca wasn’t alone, of course. One Tree Books, Snappy Snaps and Lavant Street Dental found themselves victims of the blaze, with dozens of firefighters working through the night to extinguish the flames.

But fittingly, like a true phoenix from the flames, and with the support and generosity of the Petersfield community and well-wishers, all are now in new premises.

Two are on nearby Chapel Street, with Snappy Snaps opening last weekend opposite the Rowans shop and One Tree Books beginning a new chapter in the former Ann’s Prams Unit.

And House of Boo is back in business and making people look as beautiful as ever, with this fire not dampening the determination of her owner and team of self-employed beauticians.

The blaze on Lavant Street prompted a wave of goodwill, from a GoFundMe appeal to help the victims to offers of emergency accommodation from our mayor, Cllr Chris Paige.

But while the charred upper remains of the block are a constant reminder of July 3, the traders who found themselves watching a tragedy as now back in business, and thankful for everything.

“Everyone has been absolutely incredible,” said House of Boo founder, Rebecca Boo, whose maison de beauté is now serving customers in the Lisa Edwards unit at the other end of the High Street.

“House of Boo isn’t about me, it’s a community. It has lots of individual self-employed business people, all doing different things, so it’s all about them.

“Lisa Edwards had an empty premises which I’ve leased from her. Family and friends have pulled together and we’ve made it happen – it’s a little different but we sourced the new unit within 48 hours.”

The feeling was very different just over a month ago when her friend and café owner Meg raised the alarm.

Rebecca said: “I work late on a Thursday night and we were all at work and had no clue. Then Meg ran in screaming and we all went outside.

“It was almost disbelief and there was a crowd gathering. It was like ‘oh my god’ what do we do?”

We all know what happened next, and in the aftermath Rebecca launched a GoFundMe campaign to give her self-employed beauticians a helping hand, with a four-figure sum being donated.

Some donations came in the form of chocolate for Martin and Lorena Wakefield, the picture-perfect couple who run Snappy Snaps. The company quickly found them a new home within eyeshot of the block on Chapel Street, with the doors opening last Saturday.

They lost some expensive equipment because of the damage, but managed to retrieve a fair bit after the blaze. Like Rebecca, they were unaware of what was happening on the evening.

“My brother was here working in the back and didn’t realise there was a fire,” said Lorena.

“He was still in the shop and found a lot of people knocking on the door.”

The couple have been “blown away” by the town’s response with their new premises on Chapel Street being slightly larger – and definitely hard to miss with its yellow window frames and beaming staff.

A brick wall is all that divides One Tree Books and the Age UK shop on Lavant Street.

But while the former was forced to relocate to Chapel Street because of fire and water damage on that fateful July evening, the latter remains open and in-situ.

“We were worried – you saw the damage that had been done to the shop next door and it looked so bad,” said store worker, Richard Hodgson.

“We were lucky because I think if the wind had been blowing the other way on the day it would have spread to our roof and that would be it.”

Shop staff were let in the following morning and while there were concerns about the impact of the closure of the Lavant Street and Chapel Street junction – especially given what happened in Midhurst beforehand – so there was a sigh of relief when barriers were removed.

Trade remains steady but the parking ban at the end of the road has affected the store a little, as it’s meant that fewer people are dropping off donations.

The junction’s closure also worried Steve and Lewis at the much-loved Petersfield Cobbler just across the road.

Lewis said: “The next morning we couldn’t open and we were at a standstill a little, just wondering what was going to happen.

“It was pretty slow for a while because of the closure but luckily no-one was hurt or injured in the fire and I think that’s the main thing.

“They (the authorities) said they were going to put scaffolding up because the building isn’t safe but they haven’t done it yet.

“If affected us a little but because people thought that Chapel Street was closed, but things are starting to pick up again now.”

One word that both men uttered was “community” and how people rallied for their corner of the town centre.

The fire-ravaged block is structurally sound and there’s talk of getting it repaired, with Rebecca keen to move back in.

But whatever happens, she and everyone at House of Boo will be grateful for the response to a harrowing evening. It’s safe to say that everyone else feels the same.

She said: “I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone for the support, and especially those who donated.

“It’s really made a different to the girls that work here. But now I just want to get everyone back and continuing to be the award-winning business we are.”

* Thank you to everyone who participated in this follow-up. We know there were many more people affected and we hope to tell some of their stories in time. Needless to say we wish everyone affected by last July’s fire all the best and every success for the future.