In case some of you are curious as to his recent absence last Sunday Mark064's (real name Mark Rinkinen) family suffers a great tragedy when their home was burned to the ground.
At least 10 people are homeless after a fire gutted two homes and damaged a third in the same block on Vancouver's east side.
Fire crews were sifting through piles of charred debris soaked in water late Sunday morning, trying to determine the cause of a fire that started at 3715 Inverness St. at about 4 a.m. and quickly spread to two nearby homes.
The houses at 3715 and 3711 were destroyed and the house at 3707 was severely damaged.
Residents and neighbours stood behind police tape, some still in their pyjamas, waiting to see if firefighters could salvage any of their belongings.
Mark Rinkinen lived in a rental suite with his mother Danika in the house where the fire started.
He was about to go to bed around 4 a.m., he said, when he smelled smoke. He stuck his head outside the window and could see the glow of orange flames at the back of the house.
"I grabbed my cellphone and woke my mom up," said Rinkinen, 25.
He called 911 when he got outside and watched as high winds helped the fire jump to the house next door within a few minutes.
You can read the full story here:
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=1e74051c-13d8-4d02-8d5e-afbd5daffa1eFrom what has been gathered (he's popped up on irc briefly to chat from a friend's computer) both he and his family were only able to get out with the clothes on their backs and have lost everything. Clothes, computers, his models, books, family mementos, just everything.
In chatting with Lalahsghost (a member of here but more widely known over on MAHQ) last night he's proposed a way for all of us to try and help Mark at least get back on his feet by donating money to Mark's Paypal account. This is especially true for us of Gundam Plus given all the help he's passed along to the site over the years.
Even if you can only give a dollar that's a dollar more to help him and his family try and rebuild their lives.
Mark's paypal email address is :
mark064@hotmail.com
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