While many peo­ple are prepar­ing for Christ­mas, a Bar­rack­pore fam­i­ly has been left home­less for the hol­i­days af­ter a fire on Sat­ur­day.

For 33-year-old Alex Ali and his fam­i­ly, this is the sec­ond ma­jor tragedy they have faced in eight years. In 2016 his moth­er was mur­dered at their home at Pa­pourie Road, Low­er Bar­rack­pore.

On Sat­ur­day, Ali was not at home. He learnt that short­ly be­fore 2 pm, his sis­ter Al­li­son, 31, her two-year-old son, and their 73-year-old Shaf­fi­ram Ram­bar­ran were in­side when they were alert­ed that the house was on fire.

He said, “An am­bu­lance and some peo­ple were in front. My aunt and my sis­ter and my nephew were in­side and the am­bu­lance start­ed to blow the horn. My aunt and my sis­ter came out to see what was caus­ing the scene, they showed them the smoke up­stairs and they had to evac­u­ate from there.”

In less than 20 min­utes, their en­tire two-storey, three-bed­room home was de­stroyed, along with his tools, a truck and a van.

Es­ti­mat­ing their loss­es to be over $1 mil­lion, Ali said they were now stay­ing with rel­a­tives. He said their fu­ture is un­cer­tain.

He said while they were prac­tis­ing Mus­lims, the fam­i­ly had been prepar­ing to paint the house for Christ­mas.

He is baf­fled as to what caused the fire.

“But, the cur­rent (elec­tric­i­ty) line is the main con­trib­u­tor to dam­ag­ing the van. When the fire took place, the live cur­rent line fell on the van and burned it.”

In Feb­ru­ary 2016, his moth­er, An­ge­lene Ali, 56, was killed dur­ing a rob­bery at her home. A man who lived in the com­mu­ni­ty has since been charged with her mur­der. Any­one will­ing to as­sist the fam­i­ly can con­tact Ali at 334-1156.