On our way to PAX Melboune, our car engine suddenly caught fire and started a bushfire. We were only able to get ourselves out (5 people) along with anything that was in the way of us getting out before the tires caught fire and the surrounding bushland went up in flames. It happened so quickly, and while we are fortunate to be alive we are utterly devastated by what we have lost.

We lost the car, as well as our entire expo stall setup, all our handmade stock which was months of work in the making, and many personal items including the drawing laptop used to create illustrations for our board games, a phone, shoes and clothes. Amongst the losses were almost $1500 in art prints, well over $5000 in handmade glass jewellery, handmade displays, $1000 worth of handmade needle felted wool rat merchandise, our tables, chairs, signage, etc.

To add insult to injury, we also found out the night before that our business cards details were stolen and used to purchase over $2700 in clothes, parking, and escort services. While we expect to get this disputed money back, it has meant we are struggling to pay the expenses both expected and unexpected along our trip.

The night of the fire, when we decided to continue onto PAX, our motel room was broken into. Luckily nothing was stolen but we were so shaken by the ordeal we realised we needed the help to get through this thing.

Please do not feel obliged to donate. We wish we could have instead worked out some sort of reward system like Kickstarter but we don't have the resources currently to figure something like that out. We would much rather be able to give you something in return if you help support our business by patronising us at PAX Melboune, visiting our shop at VEND Annerley which will be restocked in a few weeks, or getting our game preordered via onethousandrats.com. However, so many kind people reached out wanting to donate and we would really appreciate something to get us through this difficult time.

The remains of our car. Note the pools of molten metal on the left - there is literally nothing left in there, and there would have been no way for us to get our stock out without putting ourselves in extreme danger. We are so happy to have one another and that none of us were harmed aside from some burns from trying initially to put the fire out.

1 of only 3 identifiable remains- origin glass lampwork piece on the left, melted remains on the right.

The surrounding bushland also caught fire, making any recovery of property impossible. Fire services, arriving to the rural area, needed to act quickly to prevent the bushfire from spreading to surrounding farms, so the car was not extinguished, but left to burn out.

Funds will go to helping us potentially getting another car for our business, and an essential drawing tablet so we can continue to make games. We will also need to buy new materials to start to recover our stock of handmade glass jewellery, this includes raw glass materials and jewellery findings.