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Newcastle man living in burned out house

Feb 15 2009 by David Old, Sunday Sun

Ken Murdock in his soot-covered living room

WITH windows still blackened and cracked from a blaze, this looks like a derelict home.

But incredibly, months after a fire ripped through this semi- detached house, Ken Murdock is still living upstairs.

The front door has been boarded up by police, but is still riddled with holes where firefighters smashed their way through to rescue the 53- year-old in October.

Thick black soot covers the walls and carpets throughout the two-bedroom semi-detached house in Fenham, Newcastle.

But Ken is surviving in his ramshackle bedroom using a greenhouse heater for warmth in the recent freezing conditions.

Ken has lived in the home for 11 years, but is being booted out by his landlord after back injuries meant that he had to wind up his landscape gardening business and could not pay the rent.

He claims the landlord has refused to pay for any repair work in the building until he leaves.

But his search for a new home has so far been fruitless.

He said: “I lit a candle in memory of my mother and grandmother but left it on all night. I came upstairs the following morning and must have fallen asleep.

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