Fuel Oil

Services for William F. Wilhelm, founder of a fuel oil and petroleum products company in Randallstown, will be held at 11 a.m. today at Loring Byers funeral establishment, 8728 Liberty Road.Mr. Wilhelm, who was 88 and lived in Eldersburg, died Wednesday at the Old Court Nursing Center after a long illness.In 1932, he started the company now known as Wilhelm Energy Services Inc., which deals in petroleum and related products in Baltimore, Howard and Carroll counties.It initially dealt in coal, kerosene and motor oil and included a general store on Windsor Mill Road in Woodlawn that was run by his wife.

Lindsay D. Dryden Jr., a Baltimore fuel oil company executive and Florida businessman, died Wednesday of cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. He was 85. The son of an oil company executive and a homemaker, Mr. Dryden was born and raised in Guilford. He attended the McDonogh School. Mr. Dryden went to work for the family business, Dryden Oil Co., which had been founded by his grandfather in 1893. After his father's death in 1952, he took over its operations, and as president and later chairman of the board, expanded the business to more than 450 employees and established 17 locations in the East.

An Annapolis restaurateur was fined and ordered to perform community service and repay the state for cleanup costs for dumping fuel oil from a tank behind his business that wound its way into College Creek. Paolo Francesco Assante, 57, of Annapolis entered yesterday an Alford plea to discharging oil. In the plea before Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Ronald A. Silkworth, he acknowledged that there was evidence to convict him, but he did not admit guilt. According to the plea agreement, Assante received a suspended one-year jail sentence, was placed on two years' probation, was fined $1,000, and was ordered to pay the state nearly $6,600 and perform 75 hours of community service, the state attorney general's office said.

Gasoline prices continue to climb, and the Republican presidential candidates would have us believe that this is the direct result of President Barack Obama's energy policies. They say that if only he would get out of the way of the oil companies and stop dreaming up ever more environmental regulations, we'd all be paying $2.50 a gallon. They are wrong, of course. Gasoline prices are high because demand is high. And while the unquenchable thirst for petroleum in India and China has a place it all of this, it is mostly my fault.

Heavy rains flooding home fuel oil tanks caused four spills in Havre de Grace yesterday, but quick response prevented serious environmental problems, emergency operations authorities said.The first incident occurred about 8:30 a.m. when 120 gallons of fuel oil cascaded down the 300 block of Franklin St. and flowed into the Susquehanna River, said Cpl. Clarence Ross of the Hazardous Materials Response Team, which is based at the Emergency Operations Center in Hickory.The ice-covered streets delayed emergency operations a bit, but Corporal Ross said volunteers from the Susquehanna Hose Company, HazMat and the U.S. Coast Guard quickly spread booms to confine the fuel oil."

...TC A tanker carrying 6,500 gallons of fuel oil overturned Friday morning at Route 108 and Old Montgomery Road in east Columbia, tying up traffic for much of the day, Howard County police said.The tractor-trailer was traveling southbound on Old Montgomery Road about 10: 13 a.m. when the driver, David Joseph Dieter, 37, of the 5000 block of White Marsh Road in Baltimore County, tried to make a left turn onto Route 108, a police report said.The vehicle overturned, landed on its right side and spilled 500 gallons of the fuel oil from a rupture in the tank, police said.

Less than 200 gallons of fuel oil, used to heat a warehouse at Green Way Lawns in the first block of E. George St., spilled after a seam in a 275-gallon tank ruptured Wednesday.Steve Iles, company owner, said he discovered the leak about 6 p.m. as the oil ran across the parking lot, a distance of about 20 feet from the tank. Mr. Iles said he spread an absorbent in the path of the oil and called 911.Engines from Westminster and Reese responded and blocked the oil from flowing into the sewer system and a nearby stream.

James S. Tomalski, a retired fuel oil company truck driver and World War II veteran, died of heart failure Friday at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Fallston resident was 81. Mr. Tomalski was born in Baltimore and raised on South Decker Avenue in Canton. He attended Mount St. Joseph High School. He enlisted in the Army Air Forces during the waning days of World War II and served as an airplane mechanic in occupied Japan until being discharged. Mr. Tomalski drove a fuel truck delivering home heating oil and gasoline for Cities Service and later Citgo for 44 years before retiring in the late 1980s.

A state emergency response team was dispatched to the Naval Academy yesterday to contain fuel oil leeching from the school's sea wall.The oily water was noticed shortly before noon near the Robert Crown Sailing Center, and academy officials notified the Maryland Department of the Environment. An emergency response team contained the leak at Santee Basin, where the academy's sailboats are berthed, with absorbent booms."It appears to be No. 2 fuel oil leeching from the sea wall," said Quentin Banks, an MDE spokesman.

The oil spilled from the tanker Prestige when it foundered and sank Tuesday off the coast of Spain is less toxic to fish and wildlife than the crude oil spilled in Alaskan waters in 1989 by the Exxon Valdez, according to U.S. officials. But the thick, gooey substance nevertheless threatens to coat and smother seabirds, marine mammals and shellfish on a long stretch of Spanish and Portuguese coastline, American experts say. And it will defy all available methods for recovering or dispersing spilled petroleum from the open water.

William Alfred Long, a retired fuel oil salesman and longtime referee of high school and college lacrosse, died of pneumonia Nov. 16 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore. The Homeland resident was 80. Born in Baltimore and raised in Irvington, Pikesville and Waverly, he was a 1949 graduate of Mount St. Joseph High School. He proved himself a skilled writer at the University of Baltimore, according to family members, becoming editor of the school yearbook before graduating in 1953 with a marketing degree.

On the evening of Feb. 2, 1942, an unarmed tanker with 66,000 barrels of crude oil on board was steaming in the Atlantic, about 90 miles off Ocean City . Without warning, it was struck by German torpedoes. The attack set the W.L. Steed ablaze, and sank it; only a handful of the crew of 38 survived. As World War II unfolded, the Germans had moved part of their sub pack west to attack shipping along the coast. By the time the Nazis withdrew the subs in July to focus on convoys crossing the North Atlantic, they had sunk 397 ships in U.S. coastal waters.

William Denmead Groff Jr., who owned and operated an Owings Mills fuel oil and coal business for 60 years and was interested in preserving his family's historic mill, died Jan. 19 of kidney failure at the Brightwood retirement community in Lutherville. The former longtime Owings Mills resident was 92. Mr. Groff was born and raised in Owings Mills. He was a 1934 graduate of Franklin High School and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1938. "While at Maryland, he played varsity lacrosse for three years.

James S. Tomalski, a retired fuel oil company truck driver and World War II veteran, died of heart failure Friday at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Fallston resident was 81. Mr. Tomalski was born in Baltimore and raised on South Decker Avenue in Canton. He attended Mount St. Joseph High School. He enlisted in the Army Air Forces during the waning days of World War II and served as an airplane mechanic in occupied Japan until being discharged. Mr. Tomalski drove a fuel truck delivering home heating oil and gasoline for Cities Service and later Citgo for 44 years before retiring in the late 1980s.

Maryland families, already struggling with high gasoline and food costs, will face a major new energy challenge within a few months. The price of home heating oil, used by nearly 38,000 low-income families here, is likely to be more than a third higher than it was last winter. Right now, it's more than twice the $2-a-gallon price of three years ago. The increased cost compounds the problems of many low- and moderate-income families who are struggling to pay overdue utility bills and see no relief in sight.

Baltimore County : Catonsville Man is shot after assaulting officer Baltimore County police reported that an officer wounded a Catonsville man last night after the man attacked another officer with pepper spray and ran out of the house wielding a machete. Cpl. Michael Hill, a police spokesman, said the two officers responded to a domestic-disturbance complaint at 9:20 p.m. at a single-family home in the 6100 block of Edmondson Ave. They knocked on the door, and it was opened by a man who sprayed one of the two officers with a substance believed to be pepper spray, then ran outside with a machete, Hill said.

Lindsay D. Dryden Jr., a Baltimore fuel oil company executive and Florida businessman, died Wednesday of cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. He was 85. The son of an oil company executive and a homemaker, Mr. Dryden was born and raised in Guilford. He attended the McDonogh School. Mr. Dryden went to work for the family business, Dryden Oil Co., which had been founded by his grandfather in 1893. After his father's death in 1952, he took over its operations, and as president and later chairman of the board, expanded the business to more than 450 employees and established 17 locations in the East.

Theodore C. Burkhardt, retired founder and owner of a small Baltimore fuel oil company that was known for its customer service, died of heart failure Friday at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. The longtime Highlandtown resident was 81. A Baltimore native who was raised on South Highland Avenue in Canton, Mr. Burkhardt attended city public schools until leaving to help support his family -- but returned to his education later in life and earned a bachelor's degree when he was in his 70s. He founded the independent T.C. Burkhardt Oil Co. near his childhood home in 1946, with a single Ford fuel delivery truck, after serving in the merchant marine and Coast Guard during World War II. The company moved to Eastbourne Avenue in Canton and grew to four employees and six trucks as it earned a reputation for swift, personalized customer service.

When my wife and I bought our 1924 Baltimore rowhouse, we figured the original oil-fired boiler in the basement was just part of the charm of having an old house - like inlaid hardwood floors and french doors. Then fuel oil topped $3 a gallon this fall and kept going. We quickly realized that the 83-year-old, cast-iron behemoth in our boiler room was the automotive equivalent of a gas-guzzling Humvee. What we really wanted - and ultimately bought - was something more along the lines of a Honda Civic.