BANGOR (AP) – Maine’s poor may be compromising their safety as they struggle to keep warm at a time of high heating fuel costs and frigid temperatures.

Many households that have not enrolled in automatic delivery plans and cannot afford to fill their 275-gallon tanks are buying smaller quantities of oil, dealers say.

In some cases, low-income families buy only enough fuel for a day or so, said Jennifer Giosia, a division manager at Penquis Community Action Program.

When their tanks run dry, the families scrounge up money to buy more fuel and then may try to restart their furnaces themselves because getting an oil dealer to do it “costs money,” Giosia said.

“We are hearing that they are getting 5 gallons or 10 gallons at a time just to get by,” Giosia said. “People go down and get kerosene and dump it into their tanks. It’s a little scary because people do not know what they’re doing.”

A growing number of low-income households have sought help under the federal Low-Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program

Some 39,000 applications statewide have been received thus far, and the total is expected to top 50,000, up from about 47,000 last year.

Because of the increased demand, the amount of annual LIHEAP benefits available per family has declined to about $420 from $450 last year.

Meanwhile, this week’s average price for No. 2 home heating oil statewide was $1.94 per gallon, up 4 cents from last week and 39 cents above the price at this time last year, according to the state Office of Energy Independence and Security.

“I think people are in a bad situation this year,” Giosia said.

Congress last fall added $300 million in contingency funds to the $1 billion LIHEAP program, and the Bush administration has released $100 million of the additional money. Gov. John Baldacci and members of the Maine congressional delegation have sent letters urging that the remaining money be distributed.

“Although LIHEAP has seen an increase in its annual appropriation in recent years, the soaring prices of home heating fuels have dramatically decreased the program’s purchasing power,” Baldacci wrote. “The (contingency fund) provides valuable additional resources for the program; yet the increased appropriation, while welcome, barely covers the increased heating costs attributed to rising energy prices.”

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