Teenage musician who lost everything in a fire is overwhelmed with support

A teenage musician who lost all his gear in a house fire on Saturday has been inundated with offers of support in recent days.

Alex Micallef said he was “incredibly grateful” for all the help he and his mother have received from the public.

Micallef, his mother Anna Babola and their three pets were left with nowhere to go after their flat in Gżira burned down in a fire in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Babola was struck by the lack of help offered to them by neighbors, who gathered to take pictures of the burning apartment but did little else.

“No one offered us so much as a glass of water while we were on the street in the middle of the night in our pajamas,” she said. Malta weather the Saturday.

A collective effort to save an album

But on Monday, Alex said the community has since rallied around the family in times of need, in what he described as “a crazy show of support”.

Alex, 18, who releases rap music under the name 3mg, is now funding the rebuilding of his equipment, most of which was destroyed in the fire.

“Music is my life. I love it so much I do it every day and that’s all I see myself doing. I also do everything myself, I don’t use a studio, it’s is why having the material is so necessary for me.

Alex said it was amazing how quickly people stepped up to help him rebuild his collection, with his crowdfunding campaign already reaching nearly €2,000.

Data recovery specialist Kevin Camilleri of OMG Data Recovery has already offered his services to attempt to recover data from Alex’s computer.

The album Alex was working on was stored on a computer that was caught in the fire. Photo: Alex Micallef

“This in particular is incredibly important,” Alex continued. “I’m recording an album and everything I finished was saved on this computer.”

“I don’t know if I will be able to get back to the set-up I had so quickly, but not everything can be perfect and I think that over time I will be able to slowly rebuild myself.

“Honestly, I don’t know how to say thank you enough to the people who reach out to help me,” he said.

“Two of my teachers reached out the night of the fire and kept in touch, one even set me up a pair of speakers.”

“I can’t describe how people have stepped up to support me and my mum, I don’t know how I will ever be able to thank everyone for all the kindness they show us.”

Talk to Malta weather On Monday, Alex’s mother, Anna, said her employer had put her in temporary accommodation for seven days while they searched for longer-term accommodation.

The Housing Authority also stepped in and are also supporting the family, however, Anna said she did not want to seek their help unless absolutely necessary.

“I don’t want to bother them for now and I’ll keep trying to find something for myself, but it’s quite difficult to find an available apartment within our budget at the moment.

Alex is crowdfunding to replace his destroyed gear on gogetfunding.com