My name is Mandy, I live in Melbourne and my little brother Ben lives in Redcliffe in Queensland.

This afternoon his house was burnt to the ground after someone he knew got into his house and poured petrol all over it and lit a match with my brother, his partner and their teenage son it. No doubt you will see this all over the news today. They have lost everything. My brother is a gardener and he has now lost all his trucks and his tools too. They have nothing.

This tragedy is on the back of, in 2020, when my brother's son Angus was murdered in a car park - stabbed to death by two young men who - thanks to the laws in QLD - both now out and living their lives. This destoryed our family back then, and this next blow is yet another bad bad thing. I'm sure you saw this all over the news too.

I am in tears over here, shaking and just am lost to how to fix this. I suppose i never can, and this loss is another immeasurable loss to our family. I know Angus' ashes were kept in an urn in the lounge with a big beatiful framed picutre of him, and I don't know if they had time to save him. But as this picture below would show, I think it must have gone up pretty fast and they are lucky to have survived.

No one should ever have to go through this, let unless twice in a lifetime - the violence that has been brought to them is something from the movies. Please help me help them. Please. Every single set raised will do direct to him and his family.

Update: An emergency public safety deceleration has now been made by QLD police.

AN UPDATE FROM BEN A AND MICHELLE:

Thanks everyone for your support at the moment for my family

We will have to close services for B & M Gardening for a week or 2 while we rebuild our equipment and find a place to live

I think we will need help with some household items shortly and I will post a list of items that anybody could help us with. We need to find a home to live in first.

We just managed to get out of the house while the offender was dousing everything and the house was literally burning to the ground

To my 2 neighbours I hope you are OK

They will both need significant help over the next few months also

Thanks Ben and Michelle