BUSINESSES affected by the devastating Chinatown fire will be helped by a community fundraising event on Tuesday.
All money raised at the 2018 Chinatown Fire Benefit will be used to assist business owners and staff who have been left out of pocket after a blaze ripped through a Chinatown building on the corner of Grote and Moonta streets in the city about 1am last Tuesday.
The fire, believed to have been sparked by an electrical fault in a fridge, caused $1.5 million damage and destroyed Asian supermarket Oriental Mart and Bing restaurant.
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READ NOWIt also damaged other shops, including Dumpling King, Sys Souvenirs, Holiday Travel and Grote St Dental.
Some of the businesses are expected to remain shut for up to nine months as owners rebuild.
The benefit, organised by not-for-profit organisation Chinatown Adelaide South Australia, will be a cocktail event, including drinks and food, in the Chinatown Plaza Food Court, Moonta St, from 6.30pm-9.30pm.
The food court has reopened after a two-year, $3.5 million upgrade.
The fire-damaged Dumpling King outlet will move to Chinatown Plaza ahead of the food court’s grand reopening event on July 21.
Fundraiser organiser Shaun Osborn urged the community to support the benefit.
“A vibrant city has a vibrant Chinatown and if yours is effected by a tragic event like this we must pull together to improve the situation in any way we can,” he said.
“It’s not just the affected businesses … large sections of the precinct were shut down on Tuesday … as a flow on effect of what happened — There’s a lot of employees, as causal staff, who (lost) their income.
“The event … is not solely about money … it’s also to assure those affected … that they have a strong local support network and that we care.”
Tickets cost $100 per person and can be purchased online at trybooking.com/WVKN.
Donations can also be made via the website.