AUGUST 11, 2020 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
Restrictions hit businesses hard in north
Zena Arab and her children Marwan 9, Ayah 4, and Muhammad 2. (Damjan Janevski) 212469_02
Help for ire victims By Laura Michell he Hume community is rallying around a Greenvale family ater their house was destroyed by ire late last month. Zena Arab, her husband Mustapha and their children are living with family following the ire at their rental house on July 28. Ms Arab said the ire started in her four-year-old daughter’s room. he cause of the blaze is under investigation. “he ire alarm went of … I pulled a chair over to turn it of and I saw smoke on the roof. “I walked towards the bedroom and saw a
massive ire in my daughter’s room,” she said. “I was screaming … by the time I saw it, it was really big.” Ms Arab said she quickly grabbed the children and ran out of the house before calling triple-0. She then knocked on the doors of her next-door neighbours to alert them to the ire. “he kids didn’t even have shoes on … within ive minutes, the whole house had burnt. If it wasn’t for the ire alarm, “I reckon we would have been stuck in the house. It burnt so fast.” Ms Arab said her children, aged nine, four
and two, were coping as well as could be expected following the ire, although they missed their toys. Her brother, Wesam, started a GoFundMe fundraiser to help the family with the cost of inding somewhere to live and buying new clothes and furniture. Within the irst three days, more than $5000 had been raised. “It is so heartwarming,” Ms Arab said. “he other day I just sat down and cried … I wasn’t expecting that.” To donate, visit: www.gofundme.com/f/irerelief-for-my-sister-and-her-children.
Concerns have been raised about the impact of Stage 4 restrictions on Whittlesea and Hume residents ater a number of businesses closed their doors last week. Under Stage 4 restrictions, all businesses deemed to be non-essential by the state government were forced to close last hursday. he widespread closures have resulted in thousands of workers being put out of work for the next six weeks, adding to the region’s growing unemployment rate. Whittlesea council’s acting chief executive, Joe Carbone, told a recent council meeting that the pandemic was afecting all corners of the community, adding that Stage 4 restrictions would change the face of retail and manufacturing. He said data provided to the council revealed 4900 local jobs had been lost as of June. “Another telling piece of data is the number of our residents on JobSeeker or job allowances … this igure has more than doubled since the same time last year. In June 2019, it was 4.1 per cent – now we have reached 9.8 per cent,” he said. Mr Carbone said the unemployment rate in some Whittlesea suburbs was between 12.7- 13.1 per cent. He said it was likely the council would need to draw on reserve funding to help with its continued response to the pandemic. Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases linked to signiicant outbreaks in both municipalities continues to grow. As of Sunday, there were 186 cases linked to Epping Gardens, while Craigieburn’s Arcare Aged Care has been linked to 87 cases. homastown’s Bertocchi Smallgoods factory was linked to 200 cases on Sunday, while 31 cases have also been recorded at the Ingham’s factory, also in homastown. here were 578 active coronavirus cases in Hume and 560 cases in Whittlesea, as of Sunday. Laura Michell
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1 NORTHERN STAR WEEKLY Tuesday, 11 August, 2020