Fatal Day-Care Home Fire Blamed on Child Playing With Lighter

A child playing with a cigarette lighter began an intense blaze that killed two infants and seriously injured another at a day-care home in Huntington Beach, fire officials said Friday.

While Pat Orozco was in the bathroom Thursday morning, one of four children in her care began playing with a lighter in the living room, said Martha Werth, a public information officer for the Huntington Beach Fire Department. The lighter ignited a nearby overstuffed chair and the blaze spread quickly to an adjacent playroom.

Both Orozco and a daughter who lives in the home, Heidi Sartain, 25, are cigarette smokers.

“I lost my lighter and I’m a smoker,” Sartain said. “It could have been my lighter, it could have been my mom’s lighter, it could have been anybody’s.”

Investigators speculated that if Orozco had installed smoke detectors in her home, “none of this would have happened,” Werth said. “At worst, they would have gotten out with a few bumps and bruises.”

Instead, Orozco did not notice the quick-burning fire until it was near the playroom, creating smoke so black and thick that she was able to escape with only two of the four children in her care, Devon Strayer, 3, and 6-month-old Nick Duncan. Despite rescue efforts by Orozco and several passers-by, the other children, 8-month-old Jessica Jordan and 13-month-old John W. Reilly IV, died of smoke inhalation in the playroom.

Under state health and safety codes which govern the licensing of day-care centers, people who baby-sit six or fewer children have the option of equipping their homes with fire extinguishers or smoke detectors and are not required to be inspected by fire officials. Orozco, whose home is licensed, opted for the extinguisher, which investigators believe they have recovered in the kitchen.

But another provision of the state building code requires that all day-care providers maintain both fire extinguishers and smoke detectors in their homes, said Galen Miller, a supervisor of field operations for the state fire marshal.

State authorities said Friday that they will review fire safety requirements. Officials concede that the Huntington Beach tragedy might have been avoided had discrepancies in state licensing guidelines been amended.

“It’s unfortunate these questions are being raised after this tragedy, they should have been answered before,” Miller said.

Orozco, who is hospitalized in fair condition with second- and third-degree burns to her upper body, was not available for comment Friday. Also hospitalized is the Duncan baby, who is listed in serious but stable condition with burns to about 15% of his body.

Times staff writer Bill Billiter contributed to this story.