By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
Church praises fire victim’s generosity…
A SPRINGVALE grandmother who was found dead in her fire-gutted unit has been remembered for her generosity by her nearby parish.
Ann Tran, 80, was found after police had desperately woken and saved neighbours in adjoining units from the fast-spreading fire in the Buckingham Avenue public-housing village early last Thursday.
The fire appeared to start inside the front of Ms Tran’s unit just after midnight, police said.
It is believed to be where Ms Tran, who lived alone, maintained a small shrine for daily prayer.
As of Friday, police had yet to confirm the cause of the blaze but classed it as non-suspicious.
The Reverend Martin Sang Mai paid tribute to Ms Tran during a Vietnamese-speaking mass at St Joseph’s Catholic Parish on Friday.
He remembered Ms Tran, who kept a well-tended rose garden, regularly buying flowers for the parish.
She also donated generously towards the church’s house-building aid projects in Vietnam and well as providing fruits and noodles for the priests.
“She gave more to others than she gave to herself,” Mr Mai says.
“The English-speaking parishioners, as well as the Vietnamese community, knew her well because she was a caring woman.
“They loved her.”
She used a walking frame and travelled the 100-metre stretch to the church by scooter with her flowers and gifts.
“We, as priests, could not stop her.”
Mr Mai, who counselled some of Ms Tran’s children after the event, said her family was numb with shock.
She is survived by five children and “a dozen” grandchildren, all living in Greater Dandenong, he said.
Detective Senior Constable Kane Taylor of Greater Dandenong CIU said it was fortunate for neighbours that the fire had been spotted early by a speed-camera operator returning to the next-door Springvale police station.
Police members, who were alerted by the operator, found the unit “fully engulfed in flames”, its roof caved in.
Fire had already spread through adjoining walls to neighbouring units.
“It’s sad for everyone involved.
“Police forced entry to try and save lives and found the body.”
