2 Infants Killed as Fire Engulfs Day-Care Site

Despite heroic efforts from several passers-by, two infants died and two others were injured in a fast-moving fire that gutted a licensed family day-care center Thursday morning in Huntington Beach.

“I had nothing but a hose,” said Dennis Drew, who frantically sprayed water at the home’s flaming front door before firefighters arrived. “The lady was screaming and yelling that there were children in there, but you couldn’t breathe, and you couldn’t see, and you couldn’t touch anything. . . . Even the firemen, when they came out, started crying after seeing those babies.”

Fire officials, who found no smoke detectors in the rubble, believe that the blaze may have been caused by a faulty television set.

The dead infants were identified as Jessica Jordan, who would have been 8 months old today, and 13-month-old John H. Reilly IV, according to fire officials and relatives of the children.

Jessica’s mother, Susan Jordan, burst into tears after fire officials at the scene reported the death.

“Oh my God,” she screamed as crisis intervention workers escorted her to a van.

John H. Reilly III, father of the 13-month-old, stared in disbelief at the charred home at 5122 Audrey Drive when he arrived there Thursday evening.

“He was our only child,” said Reilly, his eyes filling with tears. “I can’t believe it happened. How can something like this happen so quickly”?

Of the other two children at the home, Devon Strayer, 3, of Huntington Beach was treated at Humana Hospital and released, while Nick Duncan, 6 months, remained hospitalized at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange with second- and third-degree burns, said Martha Werth, a public information officer for the Huntington Beach Fire Department.

The day-care provider, Pat Orozco, 49, was hospitalized in fair condition with smoke inhalation and second-degree burns on her arms and shoulders. Also hospitalized for smoke inhalation were Huntington Beach Firefighter Chris Gruber and Bill Applebee, a Huntington Beach Water Department employee who tried to rescue the children from the burning house.

Tom Huntley, an investigator with the Huntington Beach Fire Department’s Fire Prevention Bureau, said firefighters found no evidence of smoke alarms in the house, although there may have been a fire extinguisher in the kitchen.

Under state day-care licensing requirements, providers who baby-sit up to six children have the option of equipping their homes with either smoke detectors or fire extinguishers, said Dianne M. Edwards, director of adult and employment services for the Orange County Social Services Agency.

However, the state Building Code requires family day-care providers to have both fire extinguishers and smoke detectors, said Steve Viero, supervisor of field operations for the state fire marshal. Viero could not explain why the two codes differ or whose responsibility it is to enforce the smoke detector requirement.

In an interview from her bed at Long Beach Memorial Hospital, Orozco said she was coming out of the kitchen and entering the living room when she turned around and saw the fire. Orozco said she grabbed two children and took them outside but was unable to get back into the house to retrieve the other two.

“The flames were overwhelming,” she said.

Asked if she knew how the fire started or where the flames came from, Orozco just weakly shook her head.

“It’s all kind of blank right now,” she said. “I did my best.”

Volunteer therapists coordinated by the American Red Cross spent about 15 minutes with Susan and Donald Jordan, Jessica’s parents, before the couple emerged from a white van to look at the Orozco house.

“Sometimes they just need to be held and have a shoulder to cry on,” said Linda M. Johnson, a licensed family therapist from Huntington Beach who helped console the distraught mother. “Once the shock ends, then the grief begins. This is the beginning for them, not the end.”

Times staff writers Richard Beene, Marcida Dodson, George Frank and Carla Rivera contributed to this report.