The flames are believed to have ignited in the front room where one of the elderly men was found unconscious.

“I dragged the old man out of his room, he was on the floor and as I pulled him out I lost my eyelashes and eyebrows because the fire had taken off,” Mr Somerville said.

“He wasn’t coherent, I couldn’t get him onto his feet and as I pulled him the windows exploded – it really started taking off and it roared, I couldn’t believe the speed of the thing.”

The man remains in hospital and the other elderly occupant now resides at Freeman House. 

Mr Somerville was uninsured and has been living on site for the past two weeks.

“I walked in and I was just stunned by the damage,” he said.

“All the fittings in the bathroom have melted, the glass has smashed.

“Every square inch of the house is covered in soot.”

In the days that followed the fire, Mr Somerville experienced the highs and lows of human nature.

His neighbours supplied him with power, washed his clothes, fed him and their builder Kevin Hill began to clear away the remnants of furniture from the home. 

“He came here without so much as a word to me and for five or six days he cleared everything out,” Mr Somerville said.

“Just one wheelbarrow after another, I was in shock – the man is solid gold, as is my boss Robert Heath.”

But as if losing his home wasn’t enough, looters broke in and stole care packages left by friends and items of sentimental value. 

“I’ve had two robberies since the fire, the thieves went through everything and took my passport,” Mr Somerville said. 

“What they also stole, and this is what really hurts me, my grandfather was David Henry Drummond and he was quite a man.

“”I had presentation gifts of his passed down to me and they were stolen – they’re nothing to anyone else but they’re of great sentimental value to me.”

Mr Somerville said that he is now looking toward the future but he has a long road ahead.

“It’s a roulette, the ball landed on Friday 13 for me and it was a real bugger, it’s been horrible,” he said.

“When you lose your home it’s a particularly hard blow because you invest your life, sweat and blood into it.

“The blessing about all of this is that the three of us are alive and unhurt.”

Donations can be taken to the Christian Outreach Centre on Claude Street from Tuesday to Thursday, 9am to 1:30pm.