TJ Heiland sold two G.I. Joes and one WWF wrestler figure to pay for his oil.

“Thank goodness prices for vintage toys is at a high,” said Heiland, of Franklin Township.

As heating oil approached $6 a gallon Friday, he said, “(It’s) just a shame to have to sell off your childhood just to pay to keep warm.”

Heiland said he hated to part with his childhood figurines, but, “I’m a single dad and these prices are outrageous.”

With a late spring cold spell, people were feeling the burn this week as the cost to heat their homes continues to skyrocket.

Lisa Hiles, co-owner of Hiles Bros. Fuel Co. in Summit Hill, said that last year at the end of April, the price was $2.49 a gallon.

“Right now, it is over double that, which is totally ridiculous,” she said. “This is unprecedented, and we really feel that something needs to change.”

Hiles said customers have counted on the business to deliver oil to their homes for the past 39 years.

“It’s really difficult to know what to do,” she said. “We do our automatic deliveries on a rotation, which is pretty much what every other dealer does, and we keep track of the weather, the temperatures, each customer’s individual usage patterns, so we know when to automatically deliver their oil again.”

Hiles she’s never had to debate if the business should deliver oil to its customers because of high prices.

“(It’s a matter of) do you want us to fill your tank, or can you only afford a certain amount? And that judgment call is based on will it be $8 a gallon next week, or $3 a gallon next week.”

Hiles feels bad for the customers.

“How are they going to pay for this on top of all of their groceries going up, gas going up for their car, their electric going up? I’m so glad we are at the end of the heating season, not the beginning of the heating season.”

Running on empty

Amanda Kromer of Towamensing Township posted on the Times News Facebook page that her family is out of oil.

“Luckily, several years back, we put in an electric hot water tank,” Kromer said. “So, when we ran out, we put in space heaters to our bedrooms and switched over to our electric hot water tank for hot water.”

Kromer said they used to spend anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 a year in oil to fill two 275-gallon tanks.

“Had we not made this change, we would be paying more than that now for the year,” she said.

“To fill our tanks at today’s cost, we would be paying $2,963 (and change) with discounted oil grade (lower quality), putting us in debt for well into one to two years.

“Our house is definitely colder than we like, but we have a budget and can’t afford to exceed it. We’ve been layering up with clothes and using blankets in the evening, and we’ve been using our space heaters for the individual bedrooms right now.”

Kromer added that they paid $1,100 and change in September for 460 gallons.

“It’s really important to have multiple heating options considering how the economy is going, because it really fluctuates constantly,” she said. “It’s hard. We have three young children. When you’re a parent, your priority is to take care of your kids, and it’s really hard when you’re on a budget.”

Spike in last two weeks

The cost keeps rising.

“These prices come to us every day, the increases, just like you see at the grocery store,” Bill George, president of George’s P&H LLC of Palmerton, said. “But the last two weeks have just been unprecedented in the 40-some years I’m doing this.”

George said his business is seeing 20 to 30 cent per day cost increases.

“We’re forced to pass the increases along, or we’d be putting it out there at less than our costs, and no business can do that,” he said. “It’s the same for every oil company; that’s just the way it is right now, and I don’t know why.”

He said the increases are “more in a week than our profit margin.”

Every day is a challenge.

“I just hate it,” he said. “We’re trying to find a happy medium.”

Prices have been ranging from $5 to $5.50 per gallon. “It’s hard to stomach to see what’s going on,” George said, adding that it changes daily. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Neither has Don Fegley, owner of Fegley Oil Co. in Tamaqua.

“Even though we knew prices have been going up, it really caught us off guard this time,” Fegley said. “A lot of terminals are running out of product.”

That’s made things extremely rough for his business, Fegley said.

“We’ve just been trying to go day by day, just trying to get through it, give the best price we can to customers,” he said. “Hopefully, that’s going to work out in the next few days; it’s pretty terrifying.”

Seeking help

Lisa Hiles, co-owner of Hiles Bros. Fuel Co. in Summit Hill, said her business is reaching out to customers on automatic delivery to see if they want fuel now.

“We don’t want our customers to feel we are making the decision,” she said. “We want them to make the decision, what’s best for their budget.

“Most of the people that I’ve talked to so far are going to just bite the bullet,” she said. “They would rather get it topped off now, not worry about it, and be done with it until the fall.”

Some people still have oil in their tank, so they are holding off on delivery.

“But what if you can’t hold off; what if you don’t have any oil in your tank? I see a lot of suffering out there because of all the other prices going up.”

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program on Wednesday extended its deadline to apply until May 20.

Hiles said she has been telling people, who might qualify, about the program.

“We kind of go through all of our files to try to scope out the people we know are struggling, like maybe a senior citizen. We give them a call. If we don’t tell them, who’s going to tell them?”

Hiles is concerned about the customers who don’t qualify.

“We fear a variety of things, like are people going to try to heat their homes in some unsafe way,” she said.

People are hurting

In these unforeseen times, local food pantries are especially critical.

Carolyn Long, coordinator at Trinity Pantry in Lehighton, said she understands the struggles families currently face.

“It’s tough on everybody,” Long said. “Our town has been holding; we (haven’t) seen a jump at this point.”

Long noted the pantry, for Lehighton Area School District families only, is open every week, but clients can only come once a month.

“There’s many pantries in the area, so people are able to go to several,” she said.

Long said Trinity is able to give people a lot of food. “I try every month to give some type of extra things.”