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Firefighters on the scene of a house fire on Point Grove Road in Southwick. A man set a house on fire trying to heat his oil tan,

(Photo by Julia Leonardi, CBS 3 Springfield)



SOUTHWICK - A Point Grove Road resident who felt the oil in an outdoor tank had frozen accidentally set his house on fire when he tried to thaw out the tank with a blow torch, Fire Chief Richard Anderson said.

The fire, reported at 10:45 a.m. caused some damage to addition behind a home at 59 Point Grove Road.

There were no injuries.

Southwick was assisted under mutual aid by Suffield Fire Department at the scene and by Granby Fire with station coverage.

Anderson said the man had no heat in his house and decided the oil in his tank had frozen.

"So he stacked hay around the tank, and then used the blow torch on the tank," he said.

"The torch caught the hay on fire, the hay caught the house on fire, and away we went.

The home, a duplex, was spared any serious damage. A 10-foot by 8-foot attachment that was near the oil tank was heavily burned, however, Anderson said.

Anderson said he thinks the man was using hay for insulation as he applied flame from the torch directly to the metal tank to heat the oil.

Heating oil does not freeze in extremely cold temperatures, but it can thicken, which can cause the fuel line to get clogged.

Anderson said said there was little danger in this circumstance of the oil in the tank igniting or exploding.

But even so, Anderson said he did not think the combination of hay and flame was a very good approach to resolving the problem of a sludgy oil tank.

"I would have called my oil company, myself," he said.