HAH! Justification!!
Thanks to my LJ friend eumenide for telling me to do the obvious and call PG&E.
They sent out a guy immediately, and I asked him to educate me on all the parts of the furnace and what he’s doing as he goes along. He had no problem doing so.
The problem is totally carbon monoxide poisoning, and even he looked scared.
The guy says that the thing that directs the flames upwards and out of the house is no longer working, so the flame is yellow instead of blue, and the flame is curling back down towards the floor and the fumes are in the house with nowhere to go.
He says per his liability, he MUST disconnect the unit from the outside gas source, so that’s what he’s doing, now. And he’s gonna check the stove and the water heater too.
Special note to people in the U.S., in California specifically: this is FREE.
PG&E does not charge for this, nor do they charge to come out at the start of every winter to inspect your furnace!
DO NOT DELAY! CALL TODAY! I’m serious, people. I’m sure that DTE for you Michiganders does the same thing, and so on.
NOW I TOTALLY have something on the landlady.