Elderly Dartmouth couple struggle to cope with oil spill

An elderly Dartmouth couple forced out of their home Thursday by an oil spill in their basement are trying to adjust to their new surroundings.

Joe and Fern Balogh are staying at their pastor's home until they can find an apartment or a house to rent.

Their nightmare began overnight Wednesday when a thief cut a small piece of copper line worth about $6 from their furnace tank, leaving their basement flooded with oil.

Balogh said he didn't let him get much sleep Thursday night.

"I might have gotten an hour or two, two hours at the most. I just lay there and thought. I just can't understand this happening to me so fast," he said Friday.

Vance Arbeau, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church on Windmill Road, said it's been an emotional time for the elderly couple.

"You know, there are no quick easy answers to this. They're going to have their bad moments when they're just going to cry and weep and ask why, and then there are going to be positive things that are going to happen," he said.

At the Balogh's home on Windmill Road, there is one piece of good news their insurance company will cover the costly clean-up.

The bad news is that crews expect they'll not only have to dig up the surrounding soil, but also at least part of the foundation and the oil-soaked basement floor.

The couple are both in their 80sJoe has terminal cancer and his wife is frail.

"And I can't understand why this has to happen to us, you know. You know, I never hurt nobody or nothing. I mind my business, you know, and do everything I can to help people," he said.

"If this guy had of come to the door, I'd have given him six bucks, you know."

Balogh said he doesn't want anyone else to go through what they are and he wants the government to crack down on scrap metal dealers who buy the copper.

"They have to be accountable for where they get this stuff, you know. They should take the guy's name and his address, phone number, whatever and say, 'OK, it's either that, give me that, or no deal.'"

The cleanup may take two to three months, depending on how much oil the crew finds and how far it has spread.