Evon Chin needs your support and kindness (fire tragedy Sep 26 2025) by

Fire tragedy : please show Evon Chin some love!

gene90 — 2025-09-30 15:19:50 UTC

The fire was on Sep 26, 2025, Friday night, Auckland, New Zealand. Thankfully everyone was safe (with close calls), and their insurance isn't covering them citing that it's "not their primary residence". We suspect it was arson (also the police have concluded this) as there was a suspicious man with tattoos who had jumped over her gate when he came to pick up some furniture she had listed on Facebook Marketplace. Evon is super-responsible so this was not due to any carelessness on her part -- the fire started in the living room according to her (from the firefighters), which is not anything they would have caused. It's a huge financial loss and her daughter, a professional golfer, lost $10K in golf clubs (she depends on the golf clubs for income). They couldn't determine that there was a break-in because the firefighters used forced entry, removing any evidence of prior break-in. The property is ruined now due to the toxic fumes and petrochemical grime on every surface.

Video of the aftermath of the fire

gene90 — 2025-09-30 15:21:13 UTC

Evon has been sacrificing herself to care for the less fortunate. A true selfless angel without wings. Now's our time to help her. (1 of 2)

gene90 — 2025-09-30 15:39:13 UTC

July 11, 2025 -- she started helping a needy family : "I'm also helping this young family so that they can feed their dogs; they're very poor, they live about an hour & 35 minutes away, even though it's in South Auckland, the traffic there is very bad; it's a very very poor area. Tim and I went there last Saturday to cut their grass for them because it's overgrown..." "worried, trying to keep a balanced budget and yet trying to make sure that the family's okay -- I bought them a multi-cooker, she loves it, they can make soup and rice and noodles with it"...

Evon has been sacrificing herself to care for the less fortunate. A true selfless angel without wings. Now's our time to help her. (2 of 2)

gene90 — 2025-09-30 15:39:29 UTC

July 11, 2025 -- "I'm just worried, I don't want them to lose their house". (This is just one of many examples in all the time I've known her.)

She has been coping with a lot, needing to rent out her main house; her and her husband were renovating it, and so living in another residence while doing this and still working full-time (1 of 2)

gene90 — 2025-09-30 15:46:07 UTC

She now has to live in this dusty under-construction residence because the other fire-damaged one is unliveable (toxic fumes, petrochemical grime on every surface).

She has been coping with a lot, needing to rent out her main house; her and her husband were renovating it, and so living in another residence while doing this and still working full-time (2 of 2)

gene90 — 2025-09-30 15:46:25 UTC

Her account of the tragedy

gene90 — 2025-09-30 15:54:30 UTC

She forwarded this to me from another conversation, I'm not on WhatsApp (won't run on my privacy phone).

She needs to work even harder now to get past this calamity -- definitely needs our help!

gene90 — 2025-09-30 15:57:25 UTC

+++ TO DONATE +++

gene90 — 2025-09-30 21:33:55 UTC

Jerry Koh is collecting the donations on behalf of Evon, via Wise :

https://wise.com/pay/me/jerryk174

"A friend in need, is a friend indeed" -- thank you for your kind help!

gene90 — 2025-10-02 01:51:05 UTC

Oct 1, 2025 -- (paraphrased from her) : Police believe it was a burglary interrupted when we came home. Insurance isn't concerned with who did it -- they just determine the cause. They've ruled it arson, excluding negligence, carelessness, or faulty wiring. Police are investigating it as deliberate arson.

gene90 — 2025-10-02 01:56:15 UTC

Oct 1, 2025 -- she told me that all the appliances (anything with a cord) now can't be used due to the fire damage, including :

Washing machine
Dryer
Dishwasher
Microwave
Oven
Laptops

She is coping with a lot; right now she still hasn't gotten the petrochemical grime out of the fur of her animals yet and it's toxic for them to lick their fur. She sounded very sad telling all this.

gene90 — 2025-10-02 02:16:39 UTC

Oct 1, 2025 -- (more retelling) -- "The whole situation at Friday night was literally like in the movies. There were six fire engines, three on each end on standby to control other houses in case it exploded. There were power people, there were gas people, there was police cars blocking all the road. No cars were allowed in and out. Every single person went to every single house to knock, to door-knock and say, "stay inside, there's been a fire and it's very dangerous". It went on until after midnight. We ended up in a police station until about 1.30. By the time we got home, we got our dogs and find out what we're doing, was 2 o'clock in the morning. We called our friends [names redacted]. They had to rush their dogs to a friend's place so that we could bring our dogs over. So it was really quite a stressful night for them too."

"It's gotten worse now"

gene90 — 2025-10-02 16:58:13 UTC

Oct 2, 2025 -- back for some things after a few days.

Decontamination cleaning cost NZD 3,750...

gene90 — 2025-10-05 14:28:07 UTC

October 5, 2025 -- the aftermath of the ordeal is still very challenging. They are running on very little sleep, too much physical labour, and high costs.

Jerry steps in to help!

gene90 — 2025-10-05 14:30:20 UTC

Oct 5, 2025 -- "Jerry was so so lovely he helped us till 5pm

We had to make sure he eats and so to thank him.."

+++ TO DONATE +++

gene90 — 2025-10-05 14:56:27 UTC

Jerry Koh is collecting the donations on behalf of Evon, via Wise :

https://wise.com/pay/me/jerryk174

"A friend in need, is a friend indeed" -- thank you for your kind help!

Why the appliances are a write-off...

gene90 — 2025-10-08 02:50:39 UTC

Lots of work moving out the burnt remnants!

gene90 — 2025-10-11 18:34:24 UTC

Oct 11, 2025 -- She explained that she had worked extremely hard and as quickly as possible. The rubbish trailer dump had cost NZ$525 the previous day, while the decontamination cleanup came to $3,500, and trailer hire was $160. She noted they would be hiring another trailer today, though only Tim, Becky, and she herself were available to help. Bron had said he might come over, but she was uncertain. She had told Jerry not to come, encouraging him instead to rest and focus on his weekly chores, since his life had also been disrupted since the previous weekend.

DEC 8 UPDATE -- she's okay!

gene90 — 2025-12-08 20:53:28 UTC

Just spoke with Evon. She's doing okay. Thanks to everyone who helped via donations and well-wishes. She has been working her new job and is still helping others selflessly even through her challenging times. That's the Evon we all know and love.