Free furnace program now offered statewide

Last Christmas Eve, Charles Short’s decades-old oil burning furnace conked out, leaving him, his son and his aging mother without a working heater for their home.

Short, an auto mechanic who lives in Minquadale, New Castle County, got the furnace working again, but he knew it was only a matter of time until his temporary fix failed and the heat shut off for good.

“It just blew up, and that was it,” he said.

He also knew there was no way he could come up with the $5,000 or $7,000 it would take to install a new furnace. When diabetes forced the amputation of Short’s right leg, he had to close his garage and live on his Social Security disability payments, which are barely enough to support his household.

But the day the furnace gave up the ghost, Short’s mother saw a television commercial for the Warm the Heart program promising free home heating repairs and upgrades for families who can’t afford them.

Short’s application for Warm the Heart assistance was granted, and in February a team from Wilmington-based heating and air contractor Horizon Services Inc. arrived to install a brand new furnace, oil lines and stainless-steel chimney liner.

It was all free, and Short was floored.

“They were totally professional,” he said. “There was no mess, no argument. I couldn’t believe it.”

Short is one of 52 Warm the Heart clients who have received new furnaces since Horizon co-owner Mark Aitken founded the program four years ago to serve needy homeowners in Wilmington and New Castle County. In addition to installing new heating systems, Horizon, in partnership with Delmarva Power and the Lennox company, also has repaired and upgraded dozens more furnaces for free through the program.

On Nov. 24, Aitken announced his company is expanding Warm the Heart to cover Kent and Sussex counties this winter, and that 14 families will have new furnaces installed for free before the season is out.

Speaking at the Modern Maturity Center in Dover, Aitken said he and his employees saw the need for proper home heating first hand and were moved to do as much as possible to make their neighbors’ homes livable and safe.

“We saw senior citizens in Wilmington open an oven to heat a room, or bring a pot of water to boil on the stove to bathe,” he said. “We decided to dig even deeper into our pockets this year to extend the program statewide.”

Starting Dec. 1, boxes with Warm the Heart application forms will be placed at community centers, neighborhood libraries, public buildings and nonprofit organization offices in all three counties. In January, a committee of community representatives will review the applications and select the families that will receive new furnaces or have their systems repaired.

Public officials including New Castle County Executive Chris Coons, Wilmington Mayor James Baker and Gov. Jack Markell all offered their endorsements of the effort.

“This is not a government program, this is not something set up by nonprofits, this is a business,” Markell said. “Delaware is a state of neighbors and we come together to help each other.”

For Short, the program speaks for itself.

“I’m a living person and they made me feel a lot better,” he said. “It’s a shame we don’t have more people like [Aitken].”

Email Doug Denison at doug.denison@doverpost.com.