140,000 Properties May Have Blaze-prone Furnaces

LOS ANGELES-As many as 140,000 owners of commercial and residential properties in California may have a specific type of faulty furnace that’s been blamed for at least 100 fires statewide, including one that caused $50,000 in damage at a condominium development in the South Bay earlier this week.

The attic furnaces were made by now-bankrupt Consolidated Industries (formerly Premier Furnace Co.) and were sold under at least 30 different brand names between 1984 and 1992, the Consumer Products Safety Commission says. The agency issued a warning about the furnaces last autumn but has no way of knowing exactly where each of the units were installed–and thus no way to warn those property owners directly.