State Says Neglect Led to Fatal Fire at Day Care

State social service officials have accused the operator of a day-care home of neglect and have moved to revoke her license after a five-month investigation of a fire that killed two children in the woman’s Huntington Beach house.

The state Department of Social Services alleged in a six-page accusation and supporting documents that Pat Orozco, 49, of Huntington Beach failed to take precautions that would have prevented the June 8 fire. It also alleges that she did not inform the day-care licensing agency that she was taking prescription drugs that could impair her ability to care for children.

Orozco “failed to take reasonable precautions to keep either a cigarette lighter or matches away from her day-care children, resulting in a fire at the facility,” according to the accusations filed against Orozco on Dec. 1.

Gregg Parker, a staff attorney with the Department of Social Services who filed the accusations, said the state’s actions against Orozco could ensure that she would not be allowed to care for children again.

Orozco could not be reached for comment Friday.

The state’s action was applauded by Patricia and John Reilly III, parents of 13-month-old John W. Reilly IV, who was killed in the blaze at Orozco’s home in the 5000 block of Audrey Drive, which she operated as a day-care facility.

“So many people felt she (Orozco) was a hero in the fire, but she was the cause of it as well,” Patricia Reilly said Friday.

“It’s because of her neglect that the whole fire started in the first place and our children died.” John was the couple’s only child.

In the June 8 fire, Orozco rescued a 9-month-old boy from the burning house, and a 3-year-old toddler escaped unharmed. But 8-month-old Jessica Jordan also died in the fire.

An investigation into the fire by the Huntington Beach police and fire departments and the Orange County district attorney’s office cleared Orozco of criminal culpability.

The Reillys, however, continued to press for further investigation by state authorities. They said they hoped that the actions by the social service agency would spur local officials to reopen the criminal investigation.

But Martha Werth, a spokeswoman for the Huntington Beach Fire Department, said Friday: “Our previous investigation concluded that there (was) no gross negligence. This case is now closed.”

Orozco has 15 days to reply to the allegations. If she does respond, she could have a public hearing before an administrative law judge, who would decide whether her license should be revoked, Parker said. If she does not contest the allegations, her license will be revoked automatically, he said.

Orozco’s case stands out from other day-care negligence cases because of the children’s deaths, Parker said.

Among the allegations in the six-page document, Orozco “failed to take reasonable precautions to keep either a cigarette lighter or matches away from her day-care children.” It also accuses her “on numerous occasions” of leaving children unattended while she slept or was occupied in “non-day-care activities.”

The complaint also alleges that Orozco was “regularly under the influence of medications that impaired her ability to adequately care for and supervise” the children at her facility after “falsely” representing to licensing authorities that she did not take such medications.

“She wasn’t following the right procedures,” Parker said Friday. “She was pretty negligent.”

Huntington Beach fire investigators say a child left in Orozco’s care started the blaze by playing with either a cigarette lighter or matches. Flames spread to a stuffed chair, then raced throughout the rest of the house. Orozco, who told investigators that she was in the bathroom when the fire began, escaped from the house carrying 9-month-old Nicholas Duncan, who suffered second- and third-degree burns on his head and arm. A 3-year-old toddler also escaped unharmed.

Nicholas, who now lives with his mother, Jennifer Duncan, in Seattle, recently had to undergo skin graft surgery for his burns, said his grandmother, Anna Mae Barnard.

“His doctors say he still has years of plastic surgery in the future. But at least he’s alive,” Barnard said in a telephone interview.

John Reilly said Friday that the state needs stricter regulations for family day-care operators.

“It kills my wife and it kills me to think that we could have been so stupid in letting that woman take care of our baby. If we only knew about her, we would never have let her take care of our son,” he said.

Susan Jordan, who lost her daughter, Jessica, in the fire, also blamed the state for lax requirements in granting licenses to day-care facilities.

“I can’t be vindictive at this point,” Jordan said Friday. “Punishing Orozco is not going to make me feel any better. I think she knows she did wrong, and hopefully she has a guilty conscience over this.

“I feel the system needs to change. That will be justice enough.”