Volunteer's car set on fire

Fisherman Jón Elíasson, who has volunteered for five years for the family aid charity in Reykjavik was woken up by police at midnight last night and told that his car had been set on fire. Elíasson makes the candles for the charity that are sold at Christmas to help families in need. "Someone broke into my car, stole a snow shovel and a couple of CD's and then set fire to it," said Elíasson to mbl.is. He is not expecting much from the insurance company as the car was 15 years old. There are no witnesses to the incident and the remains of the car were towed away this morning from the parking lot outside the family aid centre. 

Melting the candles is nasty work

Elíasson had just finished making 4,800 candles yesterday as a volunteer for the family aid charity and was featured in an article on the back page of Morgunblaðið newspaper today for his selfless work. He owns a little trawler which sails from Bolungarvík, west Iceland and according to the interview in Morgunblaðið, needed something to do when not out at sea. "I wanted to help support a good cause." He expects to return to sea in March. 

The candles are made from suet and Elíasson says that the work is rather nasty as the suet smells very bad when melted down. " Noone else wanted to do this job but I do get helpers once in a while. I had never seen candles made before when I started here and to begin with it was a bit of an experiment. It's always fun to learn new things. The candles have a burning time of 15- 20 hours. "

If anyone can help Elíasson and is able to lend him or give him a car they are asked to contact the family help centre on 551-3360.