In mid September a faulty thermostat sparked a fire in the kitchen of his Blayney home, destroying the back third of his Frape Street house.

He called triple zero and managed to save his two Bassett Hounds Winston and Bella, but he was unable to fight the fire himself for fear of his dogs’ safety.

“I went to the rear sheds to my fire extinguisher, but realised I’d have no hope, that if I did go into the back into the house my doggies would follow me,” he said.

MAP: Where the property is located …

After the fire was extinguished Mr English discovered that despite the front two thirds being relatively undamaged, his home was deemed uninhabitable.

As the house was a typical 1940s build, asbestos sheeting was the predominant building material, and with the smoke able to carry the fibres throughout the house, the decision was made by NSW Fire to quarantine the house.

If the fire wasn’t bad enough, two weeks later Mr English discovered that his house had been broken into.

Mr English said that he had requested a member of NSW Fire enter the building in asbestos protective gear to retrieve some of his personal IT equipment, it was only then that he discovered the first part of his nightmare.

“In the days immediately following the incident someone entered and removed a number of high value items,” he said.

“Laptops, video cameras, a box full of Go-Pros, high intensity flashlights, and other miscellany from rooms that were not fire affected.

“I was sure they were there and even had to suit up myself and go in, but someone had already been into the house despite all the asbestos warnings and the barriers.”

Mr English still has no idea what he has lost.

“I won’t know until we get experts to analyse the internal residue and I can actually go back into the house in safety,” he said.

“It felt worse than the fire, you can accept damage through an inadvertent incident but, to plunder someone who is already the victim of such a tragedy sinks to a new low.”

It seems though, that people can stoop even lower.

It was a recent phone call from the police that he’s trailer had been found in a forest out near Cadia, that sent the alarm bells ringing.

“No one steals an empty trailer,” he said.

“Once I retrieved the trailer I went back to the house to find that someone had broken the lock on my shed and had stolen my quad bike, several very expensive radio-control cars and most of my power tools and air tools.”

Mr English, who is on a disability pension, is now living with his sister and brother-in-law and is waiting for the okay to be able to re-enter the house.

“I scrimped and saved to buy all this gear and now I have lost it all,” he said.

“How can you kick someone when they’re already down? The only positive that I have is that my two beautiful dogs are safe.”