Your oil furnace could be a $1 million catastrophe waiting to happen

Your oil furnace could be a $1 million catastrophe waiting to happen

Katherine Hamelin saw her home turned into a hazardous waste site. Nicholas Stephens had to rip his house off its foundation. Joe Hurley lost his retirement savings.

And it can all happen because of a dime-sized hole in your oil tank.

Around 5.5 million homes in the U.S. are still heating their homes with oil, the government says. All three of those victims were from Massachusetts, but oil furnaces remain common throughout the chilly Northeast.