Marijuana ‘grow houses’ are creating problems in Arcata, Calif.

About $55,000 in damage was caused in this rental house in Arcata, Calif., where marijuana was being grown and a piece of equipment started a fire. The owner didn’t know how the house was being used.

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Officials estimate as many as 1,000 of the 7,500 homes in town are used for pot, reducing housing stock and creating building-safety problems.

ARCATA, CALIF. — LaVina Collenberg thought she had ideal tenants for her tidy ranch-style home on the outskirts of this university town nestled in the redwoods of the North Coast. Then the 74-year-old widow received an urgent call last September from a neighbor, who said firefighters had descended on the house she had rented to a pleasant young man from Wisconsin.

Collenberg found her charred and sooty rental filled with grow lights and 3-foot-high marijuana plants. Seeds were germinating in the spa. Water from the growing operation had soaked through the carpeting and sub-flooring. Air vents had been cut into the new roof. A fan had fallen over, causing the fire.

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