Help 51 Victim stallholders in Jurong West fire incident

On October 11th, a fire broke out at Jurong West Coffee shop and wet market at 2:45am. Upon arrival, Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said both wet market and coffee shop were completely engulfed in flames.The damage is completely done when SCDF extinguished the fire.

Around 51 stallholders, 29 in the wet market, 13 in the Block 493 coffee shop and 9 in the Block 494 coffee shop - were destroyed. Most of these stallholders are from lower income families and they are in great financial loss from this accident.

Our goal is to raise funds through this campaign to financially help these affected lower income families. Some of the stall owners are the only sole breadwinner of the family like

Mr Neo Chwee Eng who is 81 years old. He used to earn enough money selling uncooked yong tau foo at the wet market to support himself and his wheelchair-bound wife.

He takes pride that his stall, which he has had for almost 20 years, sold yong tau foo mostly at 10 cents a piece, which is much cheaper than at other stalls. But selling the items at such a low price also means that he makes very little profit, Mr Neo said. "I'll be lucky if I can make $200 a day," he added. About a month ago, he also started supporting his diabetic son who had to quit his delivery job after his right leg was amputated. He estimated his loss from the fire to be about $10,000.

FISHBALL 
NOODLE SELLER

Madam Haw Mui Eng, 47, had sold fishball noodles at the coffee shop at Block 493 for 10 years. Her two sons, aged 21 and 23, are studying at the Institute of Technical Education and Lasalle College of the Arts respectively. "They asked me, 'Mummy, what to do?' I'm afraid I may not be able to pay their school fees," she said, tearfully.

TAILOR

Madam Ng, 45, a tailor at the market, had been there for 18 years. She estimated her loss at about $10,000. "I still have a family to feed. I have three children at home," she said. Her children, aged 19, 15 and eight, are still studying. "I'll have to rely on savings now to pay the bills."

She hopes the market and coffee shop can be rebuilt as soon as possible. She said: "I'm heartbroken because everyone's been here for so long. We know each other very well. All of us lost everything overnight."

CHILLI SELLER

Madam Loh Ngok, 61, who had been selling chilli at the market for 30 years, She supplies chilli to the various stalls in the coffee shops at Blocks 493 and 494.

She told TNP: "I feel very helpless. Everyone has to start from scratch. We're all close to each other so I'm sad for all of us." She said she is trying to find a part-time job to tide her over this period.

There are still many stories that are unheard of and these are few of them from the news interviews with the victims.

Many stallholders have no fire insurance

From the News Paper interviews we understand that it is not mandatory for stallholders to insure their stalls against fire - and most of them didn't.

One stallholder who sold fishball noodles at the coffee shop at Block 493, said: "I didn't buy fire insurance because I never thought my stall would catch fire after all these years.

Another stallholder, aged 61, who sold chilli at the market, regretted not buying fire insurance. She said: "I had thought of buying it, but it wasn't so important to me at the time. "Now I can't salvage anything, including four refrigerators that I bought recently."

We are hoping that every little help and donation that we do, will help these victims to move on faster and rebuild their lives again.

Note: Please approach us for any payment errors and methods

Update :

Hello everyone, By today we have come to the end of our campaign. Our heartfelt thanks to all of you who have contributed to the campaign to support the stallholders affected in the Jurong West fire accident. We were expecting to raise a good amount of money through this crowd funding campaign but we could gather only 1320 SGD. Although this is a small amount, we feel that something is better than nothing at all. To utilize this amount in an effective way, we have decided to donate these funds to another similar campaign "https://give.asia/movement/stand_up_for_our_hawkers" This campaign is also created for the similar purpose but on a different platform. So far this campaign is able to raise $31,560. The "Stand up for our hawkers" campaign is working along with the local MP to identify the 22 vulnerable hawkers affected by the fire. We are donating all our funds to this particular campaign and we are sure that our funds will be of good use by contributing to the "Stand up for our hawkers" campaign. Once again thanks for all your support.

Video of the Fire Breakout

Below are the some of the pictures and newspaper articles from web for your reference:

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/fire...

http://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore-news/jurong-west-...

http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/jurong-west-f...