Ford recalling millions of vehicles because of faulty switches

(CNN) -- Two years after his wife of 34 years died in a fire, an Iowa man continues to maintain the blaze was started by a faulty cruise control switch under the hood of her 1996 Ford F-150 pickup truck -- while it was parked in the garage attached to his home.

Although Ford has denied -- and continues to deny -- the switch started the fire that killed 74-year-old Dolly Mohlis in 2005, the company recently settled a lawsuit brought against it by Earl Mohlis. And last week, it issued a recall of an estimated 3.6 million vehicles -- bringing the total recalled over the past decade to more than 10 million -- every single car and truck built with a similar cruise control switch.

Dolly Mohlis woke up smelling smoke in May 2005, Earl Mohlis has told CNN. She woke him to find out the source while she called 911. When he looked in the garage, he said, he saw the truck was in flames.

Earl Mohlis said he opened the garage door to try to get the truck out, but the wind -- blowing that night at about 50 mph -- fanned the flames, which spread to the house.

The fire department in the Mohlises' rural town could not arrive fast enough. Dolly Mohlis, who suffered from debilitating arthritis, was suddenly trapped inside the home.

"I says to Dolly, 'You got to get out of that house,'" Earl Mohlis told CNN. "She come a-running and she never made it." Watch Mohlis describe how the flames trapped his wife »

In 2005, CNN began airing a series of investigative reports on unexplained and sudden fires in Ford cars and trucks, tracing them to a tiny electrical switch in the cruise-control system that could lead to a vehicle catching fire, even hours after the car was turned off. Ford had begun recalling the parts in vehicles with similar designs in 1999.

Ford says media reports like those on CNN have sparked fear among Ford owners. The newly recalled vehicles, a Ford spokesman told CNN, do not have "a higher than normal fire incidence."

Asked about the recall, the Ford spokesman said the company voluntarily announced the recall because it "could not be confident about the long-term durability of these switches," and to address consumer concerns about the potential for fires.

But while federal safety officials say it is technically accurate there was no confirmed increase of incidents of fires in the newly recalled vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has seen "evidence of elevated fire complaints." A spokesman said the agency was sharing that information with Ford when the company suddenly recalled all of the vehicles last week.

The spokesman went on to say there is no need for NHTSA to investigate further, because Ford took the corrective action.

NHTSA has documented more than 600 fires in which the cruise control switch is suspected since the switch was first introduced in 1992.

Ford continues to insist the fire that killed Earl Mohlis' wife of 34 years started elsewhere in his garage. But this spring, Ford settled Mohlis' wrongful death lawsuit. Neither Mohlis nor Ford released terms of the settlement.

The hog farmer told the Des Moines Register he still cries for his wife every day. E-mail to a friend