Mother-daughter psychic duo, Janice and Lara Webb, said they warned owner of Cafe Book Michelle Dimpel during a reading two-and-a-half weeks ago.

"I just said, something bad is going to happen, and there was a dark fellow that was going to set this fire or do some mischief. Mischief was what I called it, and Lara picked it up from there," Janice told the Post.

The pair say they are sixth- and fifth-generation psychics: Janice reads cards and spirits while Lara, an empath, picks up on energy.

"I felt it in the cards and I felt this, whatever you like to call it - spirit, being, manifestation - doing this naughtiness, this mischief behaviour," Janice said.

"I didn't see where, but I knew Michelle had to be warned and told to take care. Lara was adamant on the description and it was quite plainer than I have heard her come through."

Lara recalled her vision as startlingly specific.

"Mum reads the cards to get a story and for me it's more of a feeling. It's an overwhelming feeling and emotion and then it leads to a vision that plays out in front of me. Particularly with this fire I saw exactly how it happened . . . I saw a man set the fire, starting out the back," she said.

"We were just basically warning Michelle to be careful - whether it's people smoking in the building to watching who is hanging around her building and to check the security - because there was going to be a fire.

"Michelle asked me when it was going to happen and I said to her 'very soon'."

Ms Dimpel recounted the story to the Post. She described a sense of disbelief when first warned of the impending blaze, but also the realisation on Monday night.

Cafe Book will be closed for at least two weeks while business owners clean up the area. The popular cafe escaped fire damage, but sustained significant smoke damage.

This fiery premonition was not the only sign something would go wrong.

"We had actually read for a girl in the Centrelink building and had said to her "you're not staying at your job" . . . and she said "well, I'm not planning on leaving", but the reading was very clear that she wasn't going to stay at her job very long and, I guess, that's what that meant," Lara said.

Janice said they didn't tell anyone about the fire except for those directly involved in the readings.

"I think what we can do is just warn people. You can't really prevent anything, but if we had come forward a fortnight ago and said "That place is going to burn down", who is going to listen to us?" she said yesterday.

"We were talking about this this morning . . . about what the point is of knowing if there's nothing you can do to stop it."

Lara, who lives in Addison St, said she was alerted to the fire when her nine-year-old son asked, "Is that smoke or is that steam?"

"Oh my god, it's on fire," she responded.