Punjabi family rescued from Southall gas explosion almost homeless

The Punjabi family rescued from their flat by the fire brigade, after a suspected gas explosion blew up the entire building in Southall, on the outskirts of London, has lost everything as the flat was not insured.
To make matters worse, the family is in the UK illegally and has a seven-month-old baby. Their rented flat was half-demolished in the explosion and they are almost homeless.
Bathinda-native Jasbir Kaur, 30, came to the UK eight years ago on a six-month tourist visa and stayed on illegally. She met her husband, Sukhdev Singh, 39, from Jalandhar, also an illegal migrant, in the UK and got married at a London gurdwara. Due to their illegal status, they did not have a registry office wedding.
“It happened around 6.20am. The explosion woke me up. There were cracks on the wall and dust everywhere,” Jasbir said recalling the explosion last Wednesday.
“We thought a truck had hit the building. I went out and saw our front door, stairs, corridor, kitchen and bathroom were all destroyed. … We couldn’t call the fire brigade as my phone was destroyed in the blast. We stood at the window and some people outside called the fire brigade.”
After being rescued, the couple and their baby were left stranded with nothing but their nightwear. “My baby’s clothes are still inside the flat. There is no way to go in or out. A friend has given me some clothes for my daughter but that is it. We don’t even have our baby’s toys,” Jasbir said.
The family moved into a friend’s house in Brentford but can only stay there a short time.
“My family is very poor in India. They have no income and that is why I am here. I came on a six months tourist visa and did not go back. My Dad expired in 2002, my elder brother is blind and has a mental illness, my mother looks after him, and so she cannot work. I have another brother who is unemployed. In India, a girl needs a lot of money to get married so I decided to not go back. We don’t know what to do now because we don’t have anything.”
Jasbir said she was good friends with the man from Gujarat, who is missing, feared dead. Two bodies have been recovered and are yet to be formally identified. There were two other Indian men sharing an apartment and one of them survived the blast. The other man from Haryana is also missing, feared dead.