A Lehighton businessman down on his luck may just indeed get by with a little help from his friends.

R.F. Ohl of Lehighton is assisting a friend in need who was involved in a fuel truck rollover earlier this month.

Nearly 3,000 gallons of fuel oil spilled Jan. 8 after a D&D Fuels tanker was traveling down Beaver Street and flipped over on Route 209 in Mahoning Township.

Denny Ruch, 66, of Lehighton, was the driver. Though not injured, he lost his truck in the wreck.

“I knew Denny since I was a kid,” said Steve Ohl, president of R.F.Ohl. “My dad (Robert Franklin Ohl) and Denny worked together at K.J. Breiner, and my dad showed Denny how to run routes.”

Ohl said that his business was the exclusive oil provider to D&D Fuels for over 20 years, and has decided that a portion of every gallon that D&D Fuels customers purchase from R.F. Ohl will be paid to Ruch.

“I said, ‘We’ll help you do whatever we can to get you through this,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Ohl said his company will keep the same price structure, and that deliveries will be on time and reliable, just as Ruch’s customers had with D&D Fuels.

“It makes me feel very good; we’ve really made a conscious effort to be involved in the community,” he said. “It’s just one more way to preserve something and help someone out.”

In the brief time since the crash, Ohl said his business has since picked up about 100 of D&D’s customers, and encouraged more to call.

“It’s pretty staggering,” he said. “It shouldn’t be a problem; every day we have three trucks out.”

Ohl said many of Ruch’s customers have taken to Facebook to express their appreciation to Ruch.

“The overwhelming response was outstanding,” he said. “It’s been great.”

“Denny told me that he loves all his customers, and his wish was to make sure they had a reliable oil company to deliver their oil,” he said. “He said, ‘I just want somebody that I know will take care of them like I did.’ ”