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No room at the 'inn'

27/12/2001

A COUPLE spent Christmas as a real-life Mary and Joseph, after being made homeless by a serious fire.

Craig Evans and Jill Booth relied on the generosity of family and friends because they couldn't get anywhere to live before the holiday.

One friend said: "We feel so sorry for them. Now we know how Mary and Joseph must have felt in Bethlehem, to find all the inns full."

The couple were to sleep on Craig's mum's floor on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and didn't expect to find anywhere to live before the New Year. They are trying to raise the money to buy a mattress, so they have some degree of comfort in the meantime.

Last week, the Guardian told how the couple were asleep in their Langley home, when a fire broke out in the flat upstairs, during the early hours of 18 December.

They were only saved by their bull terrier, Tara, who pulled at their bedding and barked furiously to wake them.

They have since been told their flat would be demolished.

All furniture and other belongings, which were either destroyed by fire damage or waterlogged, have been lost.

Jill said: "If it wasn't for our marvellous neighbours, who went into our home and salvaged as much as they could, we wouldn't even have any clothes."