Federal agency investigating HVAC fire in school classrooms after more reported

Fires in classrooms are raising questions from coast to coast after several incidents involved heating and cooling units from the Jersey Shore to Washington state.

It’s a troubling pattern as investigators look into HVACs from the same company catching on fire in school classrooms.

“They’re the same furnace. Both fires had fires that started in the inside,” Kitsap County, Washington, Fire Marshal David Lynam said. “We need to find out what’s causing this, and we need a fix in order to prevent it happening.”

A fire at an elementary school in Washington broke out in January before class had started for the day, officials said.

But, kids were in the classroom when an HVAC unit caught fire at a different school in the same area nearly two years ago.

The revelations from Washington officials add to concerns sparked by a half-dozen other HVAC unit fires between November and late February at schools at the Jersey Shore in Galloway Township and Wildwood as well as in Plains Township, Pennsylvania.

All of the HVACs are from Airedale by Modine.

“It could be a danger to life. It could be a life safety issue,” Lynam said.

Investigators from numerous agencies have compared notes to figure out why the fires are starting and whether there’s a connection.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is among those investigating.

No one has been hurt in any of these fires.

NBC10 has reached out to Modine but we have not yet heard back.