O.C. Day-Care Providers Cite Maze of Rules

Carmen Heras, who baby-sits two children in her Anaheim home, is confident that licensing officials keep close track of fire safety requirements. “You have to have an evacuation system--the city checks that. . . . Then the fire officials come to check the smoke alarm system and see if you really have an extinguisher,” she said.

But Olga Grant, licensed to care for six children in her Santa Ana home, has some doubts about the inspection process. “It wasn’t very thorough,” said Grant, whose house has been inspected by county officials but not by the city Fire Department. “He only looked for the smoke detector. He didn’t ask me for the fire extinguisher at all.”

These widely divergent experiences reflect the maze of sometimes contradictory regulations governing fire safety at Orange County’s 2,400 licensed day-care centers that have come to light after Thursday’s blaze at Pat Orozco’s day-care home in Huntington Beach. The fire, caused by a child playing with a cigarette lighter, killed two babies and injured another.

Discrepancies are most apparent in the laws that apply to day-care centers licensed for six children or fewer, or small family day-care homes, such as Orozco’s.

Under state licensing laws, those care providers have the option of either installing smoke detectors or a fire extinguisher. Both are required for large family day-care homes--those licensed for seven or more children, state officials said.

Orozco opted for an extinguisher--a decision that Huntington Beach fire officials say probably cost the lives of 8-month-old Jessica Jordan and 13-month-old John Reilly IV.

But under the state building code, smoke detectors are required in all day-care centers, regardless of size. And local fire departments have stricter standards for day-care centers licensed for seven or more children. The state fire marshal’s office requires the inspection of those centers, and some fire departments even inspect the smaller day-care establishments.

Darlene Milek, president of the Orange County Day Care Assn., said Saturday that regardless of state regulations, her group of about 700 licensed care providers is urging that smoke detectors be installed in all homes.

“We want to make people more aware that not having a smoke detector could very definitely lead to a disaster,” Milek said. “Having an extinguisher and smoke detector are not one and the same thing.”

Milek said that, although she has not surveyed her group, it is uncommon for a day-care provider not to have at least one smoke detector in the home.

Still, she said that in the wake of Thursday’s fire in Huntington Beach, she will contact all member homes and advise them that smoke detectors are cheap and effective protection.

“If (Orozco) had had just a couple of more minutes it would have made all the difference,” Milek said.

Huntington Beach only inspects day-care centers licensed for seven or more children, said Martha Werth, a public information officer for the city’s Fire Department. Day-care providers licensed for fewer than seven children in Santa Ana, Anaheim and Irvine said Saturday that their local fire departments conduct inspections.

Such inspections usually occur just once every three years, when day-care licenses come up for renewal, according to officials. Some county licensing officials are able to make spot inspections, but most are barely able to keep up with caseloads of up to 300 day-care homes. “I think the parents should be the ones checking it out, because the county doesn’t have time,” one Santa Ana provider said.

Another Santa Ana woman who baby-sits children in her home criticized the state law that allows for a choice between smoke alarms and a fire extinguisher.

“I think it’s more important to have smoke alarms,” she said. “Once you have a fire, unless you’re experienced in fighting fires . . . you aren’t going to think about getting that extinguisher.”

Linda Easter, who operates a small family day-care home in Corona del Mar, said she has both fire extinguishers and smoke alarms in her house. But she said county inspectors never told her about state building code provisions that require even small day-care providers to have both smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.

“A smoke detector once saved my mother’s life,” Easter said. “They should pass a law that every home, regardless, should be required to have smoke detectors. It’s just common sense.”

After last week’s Huntington Beach fire, some parents have checked to be sure their day-care provider has installed smoke alarms.

Grant said she cares for one 8-month-old baby whose mother rushed to her home Friday after reading about the fire in a newspaper.

“She said she had been crying because she was placing herself in the shoes of the other parents,” Grant said. “She was so worried that she rushed over here to see how her baby was.”

Some day-care providers are redoubling their safety efforts.

One Anaheim woman who cares for children in her home said Saturday, “I have a smoke alarm, but since I heard about the fire, I went out and got another one.”

Orozco, 49, and 6-month-old Nick Duncan remained hospitalized Saturday for burns suffered in the blaze. Funeral arrangements were pending for the Jordan and Reilly children, officials said.