Furnace oil leak forces man to have his home destroyed
Published Thursday November 19th, 2009
A home in Nasonworth fell to the wrecker's ball this week and its demolition should serve as a stark warning of what can go wrong for anyone who heats their home with oil, says Deverne Jones.
Jones, who also lives on Route 101 in Nasonworth, said a 10-year-old barrel filled with 900 litres (200 gallons) of home-heating oil rusted out through the bottom and let go three weeks ago at his uncle's home.
Harry Hayward, 78, had recently had the oil tank replenished when he discovered the entire contents spilled onto the earthen floor of his basement and seeping into the soil surrounding the home when he went to fire up his furnace.
"It drained ... into the basement drain and down into the brook and, of course, the ground underneath the home was saturated. It's unbelievable how far 200 gallons of fuel will travel," Jones said.
The original part of the family home, acquired by his grandparents Harry and Pearl Hayward in 1926, dated back 150 years.
But the stench of the oil invaded the house and its contents.
The Department of Environment and Jacques Whitford Ltd. became involved with his uncle's insurance company.
"The only way that they could remove the contaminated soil would have been to jack the house up and move it off and then move it back again, but where everything was located they thought they'd had to move the house three times at the cost of $40,000 a pop, so the decision was made to demolish," Jones said.
While his uncle hopes to build a home on the picturesque, gently sloping property with a meandering brook cutting through the front lawn, nothing can be done until all the oil-contaminated soil is dug out and trucked away to a soil reclamation facility near Fredericton, Jones said.
His uncle has found a place in his community to stay until the rebuilding can occur.
Jones said he decided to go public and explain the family's plight as a warning to other residents who use an oil furnace.
"It's a sad, sad thing. The smell of that oil went through everything," he said.
Even family pictures and personal belongings were laced with the oil smell and had to be tossed, he said.
"I just think of the hundreds and hundreds of homes in the Fredericton area that have oil heat. My mother has an oil barrel in her basement. We're certainly going to be looking at that right away quick and find out what we're going to do there," Jones said.
The oil tank outside his uncle's house was 10 years old, Jones said, but the deterioration of the tank occurred from the inside out.
"It's because of condensation in the tank," Jones said.
Given the disastrous spill and its effects on the home, Jones said it's a reminder for everyone who uses oil to heat their home to consider purchasing an oil bladder blanket that can contain leaks, install an oil-leak alarm or consider newer types of oil tanks, such as vinyl, which may be less likely to leak.
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