COAL TOWNSHIP -- A mistaken delivery of home heating oil left a home in Northumberland County soaked with fuel.
The woman who lives there says it's also threatening her health. She is a disabled veteran and may have no choice but to pay for other people's mistakes, especially the one made when she converted from oil heat to electric.
At Danielle Stoud's home near Shamokin, every window in the house is open.
"All you can smell is oil," she said.
The problems started last month while Stoud and her fiancée were visiting relatives 40 minutes away. A heating oil delivery truck came to the home. The driver had been given the wrong address.
The deliveryman pulled his hose up to Stoud's home, opened the receptacle, plugged in the hose, and started pumping heating oil. The oil went through an open-ended pipe, spattering on the basement floor because Stoud had her oil tank removed five years ago.
The manager of Bloom Oil in Coal Township admits it delivered to the wrong home and his crews cleaned up all the oil they could.
But both Bloom Oil and Stoud's own insurance carrier agree that the oil company is not responsible for lingering damage and the fumes.
The state building code holds the homeowner responsible for plugging or removing the receptacle, so something like this doesn't happen.
"How would a common person know this?" Stoud asked.
Stoud would like the man who removed the tank to take responsibility but she has no idea who he is or where he is. She hired him five years ago when he answered her online classified ad.
Stoud says he removed the oil tank for free because he planned to sell it for scrap.
Now she feels stuck in a home where her laundry smells like oil and her air filters don't last long.
"We have to replace them every week to two weeks."
Stoud's house is so permeated with the smell of oil she says it is making her sick.
"I ended up having a throat infection. My ears are clogged. And the first test that I had done is showing slight liver damage. "
Stoud says she and her fiancée are in a tough situation. They had invested $45,000 in fixing up the home before the fuel spill. Now, they believe their home would have little value if they wanted to sell and move.