(AP) Aug. 2, 2007 A mistake by a heating oil company left a big mess in the basement of an upstate New York home. A delivery driver for Abbott and Mills delivered nearly 400 gallons of heating oil to the home of Nyoka Young, a single mother living in a small brick house in New Windsor.
But there was a problem. The driver had the wrong address — and there’s no oil tank in Young’s basement. The deliveryman pumped the petroleum into an old fill pipe attached to the house, sending 397 gallons of heating oil into Young’s basement.
This is when oil spills get personal.
driver: “my bad.”
I want to see the Paper work…NOW.
Thank goodness the order wasn’t Full Tank… 😉
When I lived on the east coast where oil is used a lot for heating, this was not an unheard of.
Superb. Most excellent. SOMEBODY is going to pay for those 397 gallons; if not the homeowner, the distributer will eat the cost. So that’s another 397 dollars worth of profit in President Cheney’s retirement fund.
God bless America!
This happend to my house when I was growing up… on the initial fill the shut off valve was left open on the tank… Luckilly it filled up the ‘crawl space’ and not the basment! They cleaned it up and replaced the gravel under the house…
I bet that if there was a spark or a faulty lightbulb or something in her basement it would an even BIGGER explosion than that awesome truck bomb video – which, now that I think about it could have used some fireworks and machinegun-mullas and ululating tribesmen brandishing scimitars
Now THAT would ahve been a video to see!!
When I saw this, I thought “This’ll be mildly amusing – I’ll put a comment in blaming Bush.” But then I saw #5 and I realized no one would get that it was a joke.
I love the fact that someone can turn ANYTHING into a Bush/Cheney rant. It has to be a marketable skill, no?
When I lived in the Boston (late 70’s) this happened once or twice each year, usually in the winter. I am very surprised to see this article in August, the oil price must be low to stock up this early (I doubt they are running the heater in the summer).
#7 – This is heavy Oil and as such is not that volatile. You need to put a flame to it to get it to ignite. The oil would need to be aerated quite a bit for a spark to set on fire, let alone explode. Once it is ignited, it will burn very hot as well as steady. This is why it makes a good “heating oil”.
>>I love the fact that someone can turn ANYTHING
>>into a Bush/Cheney rant.
Hey, they make it so simple. It’s kind of like procreating…so easy, even a neocon can do it.
Name one non-evil thing that Bush/Cheney have ever accomplished successfully. Just one. I dare you. I double-dog dare you!
And I didn’t exactly “blame Bush”. I merely pointed out that President Cheney will profit from this waste of oil. I report, you decide.
#9 – ah ha! didnt know. I gew up in the mountains, we used wood for heating never had to deal with oil or lng, i guess i just assumed that it’d be explosive
11, and it smells pretty bad, too. That house is going to be really hard to clean up, if it can be cleaned up. Whoever foots the bill, it’s going to cost WAY more than 397 gallons of #2 fuel oil.
This happens quite often, the old fill pipes should not just be cut off on inside, they need to be completely removed and holes patched ! I have seen sites where drivers cut off locks on the fill pipes and fill basements.
As a state oil inspector I always order the pipes removed when I see them.
Steveo
Don’t forget that oil spills are technically hazardous waste. They’re going to need teams in bunny suits to decontaminate the entire basement, check for seepage below, test the water table for contamination, test the air in the house for volatile vapor levels and carcinogens…
When you can’t even dump kitty litter with a cup’s worth of heating oil absorbed from a leaky tank *ahem* onto the weeds in your back yard because it’s against the law, this basement fillup will be considered a localized environmental emergency.
Because of the stench, that house won’t be liveable for weeks.
#14 – OvenMaster,
I’m not actually sure of the toxicity during removal. But don’t forget, now the ground soil needs to be tested. I wonder, if it tests positive, do they have to dig out the house, remove the contaminated soil, and replace it with non-contaminated soil? Or, can they do this with the house in place somehow?
I agree with Steveo, these pipes should be removed, welded shut, or otherwise permanently sealed. I can’t imagine what goes through the insignificant brain of an oil deliverer that actually cuts a lock to pour in the oil. Someone that does that should be required to remove the oil with a straw.
First, I’m pretty sure that this is an old story. At least I remember hearing the exact same thing happening a few years ago. Two, this sort of this is the results of oil suppliers hiring the cheapest possible, untrained, labor force they can. In other words, they’re making too much profit, at customers’ (and the general public’s safety) expense. There should be a more foolproof records system in place (or truck drivers who can read!) to keep oil from being pumped where it’s not wanted. To my knowledge, no one every got free bottles of milk delivered to they house, back when they were delivering the stuff.
Guy is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Heating oil delivery was one of my first jobs, lo these many years ago. There is a whistle built in to the vent pipe, and when the whistle stops the tank is full. No whistle – big problem. On the other hand the normal tank size is 275 gallons, but the meter is back at the truck, so the guy would have way of knowing how much oil he had pumped until he got back to the truck. Still, I can’t understand why he would pump for more than a couple seconds when he didn’t hear the whistle.
I wonder what his NEW job is…
#15:
Scott, heating oil is potentially carcinogenic and any spills are considered hazardous.
http://tinyurl.com/2j3xth
The accompanying CBS story shows the house was condemned. Soil removal and testing from a home basement hatchway is going to take weeks and $$$.
Methinks that oil company will go out of business very soon after their insurance company finishes with them.