The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
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24 MARCH 2015 FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com Bio: Shane Sweet is an energy and management consultant with clients in the heating oil, propane and motor fuel sec- tors, a Partner with the firm of Lake Rudd & Company. As of Nov. 1, 2014, he is the new executive director and technical director for the New York Propane Gas Association. He served the industry as President & CEO of the New England Fuel Institute "NEFI" from 2007 to 2011, and as Executive VP/Director and Lobbyist for the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association "VFDA" from 1993 to 2007. CoNTACT: He lives in Shaftsbury, Vt., and may be reached at shanemsweet@gmail.com or 802-558-6101 cell/text. Suggestions by readers for future column content, as well as general comments are welcome. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ shane-sweet/7/a52/701 Shane Sweet OPERATIONAL INSIGHT W e all have them: Experiences that, collec- tively or individually, are indelibly seared into our memories. They mold our per- sonas, define who we are, and for better or worse, shape our opinions for the rest of our lives. The year was 1986. It was mid-winter, ski season was in full gear, and it was 6:30 p.m. on a Friday night during the holidays. It was brutally cold and the evening sky was crystal clear, black beyond black, and full of stars. The office phones were ringing as second homeowners were arriving for a week of skiing and après ski. I was still in the office and literally walking out the door, jacket in hand, just moments after having turned the phones over to the answering service. The answering service called me on the radio and passed on the basic information about the call. Early that morning, we made a delivery to a new customer who had installed a new 275 tank in his home. The home was a two-story ranch-style home with a walkout basement. The ground level living space was partially finished with a half dozen framed and partially finished rooms left and right down a long hallway that terminated at a large kitchen-living room area on one end of the base- ment area. The second floor was under renovation, with windows but no heat or wiring to speak of. We had been called earlier in the week and the delivery had been arranged for Friday morning, by which time the homeowner was to have had the new tank set, fill/vent installed, and ready for first delivery. We made the 100 gallon delivery to the new tank as planned. I took the call from the answering service and called the customer from the office. Let's call him "Phil." When I spoke to Phil on the phone, he recounted a scene that led me to believe that the entire 100 gallons of heating oil delivered that morning was now entirely on the floor of the base- ment living space. 1 I'd dealt with basement spills in the past, and the thought of having to address one on a Friday night in February had "bad" written all over it. Back then, the notion of getting a third-party spill response contractor to a home in rural northern New England on a Friday night was not an option. Phil had no idea what to do. He sounded help- less. We were it. I told him we would be right over. Luck had it that my service manager was run- ning late getting home and was closest to the site. I filled him in by radio and asked him to stop there to assess the situation. About 20 minutes later he called via a land line and essentially said "get every- one we can up here. It's a real mess." I corralled every tech and driver I could find and within 30 minutes we were on site with countless bags of sorbent, booms, pads, shovels, HAZMAT barrels, vacuums, etc. I met my service manager at the entry door of the house. There was no light in the hallway, and hence, when I stepped over the threshold and into the house, I found myself nearly ankle deep in ice cold fuel oil. I walked down the hallway, splashing through the fuel oil, and stopped as I entered the large combination kitchen-living room area at the southern end of the house. My eye was drawn to it immediately: A wood stove, door to the stove wide open, stuffed with wood, burning "full tilt," cherry red at the collar, and the open flames not 18 inches from the sea of heating oil surrounding the stove. Simultaneously, my heart skipped a beat, and Phil, who was making a sandwich on his kitchen counter, said, "Thanks for coming." Realizing I was not dead yet, I walked calmly over to the door to the woodstove, closed it, and we went to work. 1 - It was determined later that the brand new 275 tank had a defect in the form of a pinhole in the steel, and this allowed most of the 100 gallons to seep out of the tank over the course of the day. The tank manufacturer paid all expenses related to the problem, no questions asked, within 24 hours. INDELIBLE l F O N