Older Interesting Read

JK_3

as soon as i have a signed contract for a conversion I have a styrofoam cover (similar to what homeowners put on the hose bibs in the winter)that I secure over the fill pipe and a sign in bold letters(DO NOT FILL OIL TANK NO LONGER IN USE). That gets posted. The sign is 18x18. Then even if I have not been contracted to remove the tank the first thing we do when starting the job is either remove the pipe and patch the hole or stuff insulation downthe pipe and fill with something ie: cement,funace cement,silicone etc. So far we have not had an incident.

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Unknown

My co-worker found,

this article on the internet,, I thought it was quite interesting.
What do you think?

Dave

Alan(OnVacationInOregon)Forbes

One silly mistake

can spoil your life.

Unknown

I agree Alan,

He seemed(the driver) pretty determined to get oil in that tank!

Dave

lee_7

Did similiar thing when I drove oil truck. Went to wrong house, was a row of twins and was supposed to go to house on left but went right. Realized mistake VERY quickly when there was no whistle. At 70 gallons of oil a minute doesn't take long for a simple error to be costly. The owner had tank removed, but not the fill and vent.

Boy were they mad when they got home.

Bob Bona_4

old news

There was this one job where the HO thought he was being clever and left the fill pipe and box intact for a port to stick an extension cord outside when needed for Christmas lights or whatever. All he had to do was take off the Scully and shove the cord thru. Cool! BZzzzt! Wrong answer!

Nudder job I was on, the tank had been pulled (formerly buried in a nice soft fly ash bed). The return line was never removed, yet the pump supply was hooked to the new indoor tank. When they ran thru a tank in two weeks, I came out to inspect. Ugliness and mucho soil remediation.

Come to think of it, the same thing happened on another job in several towns over around the same time.

Jean-David Beyer

That happened to some friends of mine, but it was not so costly. The oil delivery company disconnected the leaking oil tank in the basement from the oil burner. He then installed a new one upstairs in the attached garage, that he connected to the oil burner. He further spray painted the decommissioned filler and breather pipes with shocking pink. He also pumped out the remaining oil in the old tank.

All went well until a cheap painter painted the house and painted the shocking pink pipes the same color as the house. The homeowner and his wife were at work when the oil delivery company arrived to fill the tank. Luckily, I was there to grant access to the filler pipe for the new tank. Unfortunately, the delivery guy had already started to fill the wrong filler pipe. Luckily, my friends had not removed the old leaky tank. When I noticed the wrong filler pipe was being used (the correct one was on another side of the house, not visible), I had him stop pumping. They pumped out the old tank and filled the new one. Luckily, there was so much rust and crud in the old tank that it did not leak in the interval.

Nobody sued anyone, but it could have been far worse. I have tried for years to get them to remove the old tank, but they cannot afford to dispose of it legally, so it remains there.

burnerman_2

Plugged The Pipe

I was on a job installing a new gas boiler. I had and still deliver fuel oil. I noticed the fill pipes from an old tank just hanging there. I told my co-workers we need to plug them Why they said we are here to install a new boiler. I had no rest til I plugged them at least this way a wrong delivery will only get an oil bath instaed of a basement filled.

John_19

happens too frequently

This still happens not infrequently. A colleague and I were talking about it and so I googled fuel oil basement delivery mistake. All around the northeast. I am stunned why replacing the fill pipe isn't just routine. I guess people are so cheap they want to save the $20 it would cost for disconnection.