Heartwarming Story

Someone at work thought about sharing this story with everyone. If you are like me, you might be having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. This story made me remember the true spirit of giving to others. I hope it will do the same for you. By the way, I work for EPA.

It started when Emergency Response Team received a call of 275 gallons of fuel oil released from a private residence in Ohio. The release occurred when a fuel oil tank at the residence of a 94 year old woman,who fell over and released fuel into a creek and also around the foundation of her home. The fire department responded to the release and did an excellent job preventing the fuel oil from entering a nearby pond but she was left with 275 gallons of fuel oil in a creek and infiltrating the basement of her home.

Enter an Emergency Response employee (let's use Jim, which is NOT me)responded to this residence. Unfortunately, Jim explained to the woman that the fuel oil would have to be removed from the creek and from around her foundation. Her home at the time had a strong odor of fuel oil, and could not be occupied. Jim contacted the woman's insurance agency. Initially, the insurance company refused to pay for anything. Jim eventually convinced the insurance company to pay for the removal of fuel oil from the creek and to cover any damage off-site to any other properties other than her residence. The fuel oil in the creek was cleaned up. The contaminated soil was removed on other properties, but the poor woman was left with fuel oil around her home's foundation, and odors inside her home that were unsafe.

The fuel oil and the contaminated soil around her foundation needed to be removed, and her fuel oil tank needed to be replaced. She would also need a new load of fuel oil to heat her home. This poor woman had no money. She could not afford the thousands of dollars it would cause to correct the problems at her home.

Jim came back the next day for a follow up inspection, and to try to help her decide what could be done to save her home or find her a place to live. When he arrived, he was shocked to find a large group of people waiting for him. Apparently, someone from the fire department, who knew what had happened at the house had informed the Pastor to the woman's church. The Pastor had informed the congregation of what had happened. People from the church just showed up at the house ready to do whatever was necessary to help her. Probably like in every parish, there was someone who was a plumber, someone who was an electrician, someone had a back-hoe for digging, some people just came to do whatever they could. The people spent the day working, with Jim coordinating, to help her. They dug soil from around the house's foundation, removed the fuel oil from around her house, replaced her foundation drains, and cleaned the odors out of her house. At the end of the day, the fuel oil from around the house had been removed and the problem had been corrected, but the house still had no heat. The original fuel oil tank for the residence had been damaged when it fell over and could not be repaired. Additionally, the fuel oil had all been lost and the woman did not have the money to replace it. The generosity continued as someone from her parish donated a new fuel oil tank, and then, a neighbor of the old woman, with four children and very little money of her own, paid $400.00 dollars to have fuel delivered to her home. In the end, this woman got her home back. Without the help of her church, maybe she would have lost the home, I don't know? My co-worker thought he would share this story. Maybe this isn't such a big story. Maybe it's only impressive to him because he see so many people in the woman's position who never have any help and have nowhere to turn. It is nice to know that people are still willing to give of themselves to others.