A teen musician who lost all his equipment in a house fire on Saturday has been inundated with offers of support in the past few days. 

Alex Micallef said he is “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 Gżira apartment burned down in a fire in the early hours of Saturday morning. 

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

"No one offered as much as a glass of water to us while we were out on the street in the middle of the night in our pyjamas,” she told Times of Malta on Saturday.   

A collective effort to save an album 

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

18-year-old Alex, who releases rap music under the name 3mg is now crowdfunding to rebuild his equipment, most of which was destroyed in the fire. 

18-year-old Alex started with an old laptop and spent years building his collection. Photo: Alex Micallef18-year-old Alex started with an old laptop and spent years building his collection. Photo: Alex Micallef

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

Alex said it has been incredible how quickly people have stepped up to help him rebuild his collection, with his crowdfunding campaign already reaching almost €2,000.

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

The album Alex has been working on was stored on a computer that was caught in the fire. Photo: Alex MicallefThe album Alex has been 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 had finished was saved on that computer.” 

“I don’t know that I’ll be able to get back to the set-up I had so quickly, but everything cannot be perfect and I think with time I will be able to slowly rebuild.

“I honestly do not know how to say thank you enough to the people who are reaching out to help me,” he said.

“Two of my teachers reached out the night of the fire and stayed in contact, with one of them even setting me up with a pair of speakers.”

“I can’t describe the way people have stepped up to support me and my mum, I don’t know how I'll ever be able to repay everyone for all the kindness they are showing us.” 

Speaking to Times of Malta on Monday, Alex’s mum Anna said that her employer had set her up in temporary accommodation for seven days, while they look for more long term housing. 

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

“I don’t want to bother them for now and I’m going to keep trying to find something for myself, but it’s proving quite difficult to find a flat available at our budget at the moment. 

Alex is crowdfunding to replace his destroyed equipment at gogetfunding.com

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