Think you're having a bad day?

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Could be worse...ouch.


PHILLIPSBURG | Michele Giamoni arrived home Thursday afternoon and immediately noticed an unusual smell in her Heckman Street home.

She traced it to the basement, where she found a nearly 150-gallon delivery of home heating oil spread across the floor of her finished basement, the bottom of an antique dresser and other belongings.

A worker for Huntington Oil Co. Inc. in Alpha had made a delivery to the wrong address earlier in the day, according to authorities at the scene.

The home has been heated by natural gas since Giamoni's now-deceased parents made the switch years ago, she said. No one ever removed the oil intake pipe outside or the rusted oil tank the pipe leads to in the basement.

"That oil tank hasn't been used for many years," she said.

The delivery person pumped 147 gallons of oil into the outside pipe, authorities said. It ran into then out of the rusted tank and across the floor.

"I thought, 'You gotta be kidding me,'" Giamoni said. "This is not what I was supposed to come home to."

The delivery apparently occurred some time Thursday before Giamoni's arrival home about 2 p.m.

A man identifying himself as the owner of Huntington Oil Co. declined to comment when reached by telephone Thursday afternoon.

"I'm not going to give out any information until we get it settled out," he said.

Giamoni said she put her dog and cat in a second-floor room as Phillipsburg firefighters and the Warren County Hazardous Materials Team and Health Department responded, along with town Mayor Harry Wyant and others.

Emergency vehicles clogged the first block of Heckman Street, which was temporarily closed to traffic.

County hazmat Chief Tom Nigro said it is fortunate Giamoni's home is not like many in the area that have dirt basement floors, because the oil would've then seeped into the ground and caused environmental issues.

He said he was monitoring the cleanup as firefighters spread an absorbent material over the oil. He also checked to make sure the oil didn't seep into any drainage holes.

Nigro said it would take a couple of days to clean up the mess. He said the oil company would hire a contractor to remove the oil and deodorize the house.

Warren County Health Department Senior Environmental Health Specialist Chris McCormick said he planned to advise Giamoni to find another place to stay Thursday night, because fumes from the oil could cause her physical discomfort.

Reporter Tom Quigley can be reached at 610-258-7171, ext. 3574, or tquigley@express-times.com. Talk about issues in your town at lehighvalleylive.com/forums.