Grace Porter’s terraced home at Coronation Terrace in Willington, County Durham was left in ruins when her neighbour’s house exploded on June 24 last year.
On Wednesday (January 8) she was told her home was set to be demolished just hours later with demolition teams moving in on Thursday morning.
Read more: Mum races to save belongings after learning home to be flattened within HOURS
It was “by chance” that the 35-year-old mum-of-two emailed her landlord asking for an update and learned in their reply that her home would be flatted with all her belongings still inside the next day.
No7 Coronation Terrace with its upstairs blown out and Grace Porter’s home to the right, which is also being demolished. (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
The area’s MP Mary Kelly Foy has slammed it as the latest in a “long line of failures in communication” for residents in the explosion’s aftermath.
She said: “This has been another in a long line of failures in communication which have plagued the whole situation at Coronation Terrace.
“I’ll be making enquiries immediately to ascertain why the resident was not informed demolition was due to begin, so she could retrieve her belongings from her former home in good time.
“I was grateful to hear that contractors at the site helped the resident retrieve some of her belongings, but the errors connected to this site must stop now so work can be completed swiftly to allow residents to move on with their lives.”
City of Durham MP Mary Kelly Foy. (Image: STUART BOULTON)
Grace rushed to try and salvage possessions from her home on Thursday (January 9) and told how shocked contractors who paused work after hearing her story had been emptying her home into skips despite her being told it was unsafe to enter.
It comes after Northern Gas Networks issued an apology to residents left facing “a bomb site” every morning for six months.
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Northern Gas Network business operations lead, Steve Pigott, told The Echo previously: “Although the cause of the incident on Coronation Terrace on 24th July was not gas network related, we do accept responsibility for a delay in communications with the site surveyor that has led to the damaged properties not being taken down more quickly.
“We want to sincerely apologise to residents for failing to meet our high standards of communication in an extremely sensitive situation and confirm we have amended our processes as a result of the learnings.”