A heating company truck is parked outside a Saint John house where oil was accidentally poured into the basement. (CBC)A Saint John family is looking for a temporary new home after about 30 litres of home-heating oil was accidentally pumped into their basement.
Saint John fire crews responded to complaints of a furnace-oil spill in an east Saint John residence on Friday morning.
Jerry Morris, the district fire chief, said between 20 and 30 litres of home-heating oil was delivered to the wrong house. Morris said the driver misread the delivery ticket and put the oil into the pipe on the wrong house.
"What happened there, this residence there, they didn't have a furnace for practically 15 years," Morris said.
"But the fill pipe was still on the outside of the building. So when he put the fuel in the pipe it just went directly right into the basement."
Morris said the oil flooded the home's fully furnished basement and the fumes are so bad the home will not be liveable for several weeks.
Irving Oil Ltd. has put the residents up at a hotel at the company's expense and crews spent the day cleaning up the mess, said André Landry, district manager of operations.
"We have a process first of all to avoid these type of incidents, so we're investigating that now internally. But the first priority this morning was ensuring that the homeowners were tended to and that their needs were met."
Meanwhile, fire officials said residents who are no longer using home-heating oil should have the fill pipe removed so similar accidents do not happen.
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