My tank split and there is fuel in the fuselage of my stick. What is the best way to clean this up? I could use alcohol but I think that this will saturate the balsa more.
Thanks for the help.

Alcohol won't hurt the wood at all, providing you don't do anything which would distort the wood before the alcohol evaporates - at worst 24 hours.

The real problem with fuel-soaked wood is not the methanol/nitro, it's the oil content. And that's only a problem if you need to repair the model - adhesives generally don't stick well to oil-soaked wood.

If you just gotts to get the oil residue out, you can try ironing paper towels onto the wood - the heat will draw the oil into the paper towe; the same process works very well for removing candle wax from fabrics, BTW.

Otherwise, just flush the thing with denatured alcohol and let it dry. The only time fuel in a fuse becomes a problem is when you don't know it's there, and the wood becomes saturated - the nitro can loosen CA and the methanol can soften the wood. In truly bad cases, the fuse falls apart because the glue joints soften.

Find K2R spot remover spray at the store and spray it liberally on the wetted area. Let it soak and the darkened areas of the white powder is the oil that it is lifting. Vacum that out and apply again until you see no more darkened powder and all the oil will be gone, not maybe but gone.

As K2R is becomming harder and harder to find, here is an "old fashioned" method. Use corn starch. Liberally sprinkle on (in) the area(s) and rub it in if possible. Let it dry and brush/vaccuum out. This works almost as well as K2R, however several applications will be needed to get all the oil out of the wood.

FWIW - If I have a separate fuel tank compartment in the fuselage I brush on a THINNED coat of epoxy (I thin it about 10% by volume with acetone ). This will take a couple of days to dry, but it will be fuel proof. Another option is to coat the area with clear fuel proof dope. Obviously, this is done prior to any exposure to fuel.

I had to get the last bit of corn starch out that was stuck in the wood grain with alcohol.