Elderly victim of trailer fire receives fuel oil assistance

92-year-old had been using defective space heater to stay warm

By Joe Beck -- jbeck@nvdaily.com

FRONT ROYAL -- The thermostat in Michael Bennett's trailer is set at 65 degrees, and that's the way he likes it now that he knows he has plenty of fuel for his furnace.
"I set the thermostat at 65 to conserve fuel for as long as possible. I sure am happy," Bennett said.

Bennett, 92, didn't have any fuel a few weeks ago when his trailer caught fire. Friends and neighbors rescued him quickly, and extinguished the fire without much damage to his trailer, but they were upset that he was relying on a dangerously defective space heater to stay warm.

The heater, which caused the fire, was pressed into service after the weather turned cold, and Bennett had yet to obtain any heating fuel, despite having been deemed eligible for the federal fuel assistance program months before.

Bennett's landlord, Ricky Bennett, who is unrelated, said about 100 gallons of kerosene was delivered to Michael Bennett's trailer about two weeks ago

"He's good to go now," Ricky Bennett said. "I checked the furnace, and everything's running fine.

"He's comfortable, and that's all that matters to me."

The fuel assistance program is funded through Congress, and administered by the state with help from the county in determining who is eligible for it.

Beth Reavis, the county's director of social services, said the county paid an oil company $440 for the 100 gallons of kerosene that was delivered to Michael Bennett after the department learned of his lack of heating fuel.

Reavis was interviewed after Bennett gave the department written permission to talk about his case, which would normally be confidential.

After paying for the emergency delivery of kerosene, the department investigated what had happened to a check Bennett was supposed to have received much earlier to pay for his fuel, Reavis said.

She said the department learned a few days later that the state had mailed a check for $365.27 to Bennett from Richmond on Dec. 29, and that it had been cashed by a family friend on or about Jan. 4. The friend put the money in Bennett's account at the fuel company on Friday, she said.

Reavis said a member of Bennett's family told the department investigator that the $365.27 mailed by the state paid for less than the minimum amount of fuel that the fuel company required for delivery to Bennett.

But in an email message received Wednesday
afternoon, Reavis said she had discovered the company's minimum amount of delivery was 50 gallons, which would have cost $249.95, a considerably smaller sum than the $365.27 that initially went unused.