Man Held After 4 Hurt in Fire : Rescue: Children he was supposed to be baby-sitting are led to safety from two-story townhome by firefighters and officer. Police arrest Clarence Smith, a parole violator.

A 42-year-old parole violator was arrested Monday on suspicion of child endangerment, police said, after an apartment fire injured four children he was supposed to be baby-sitting.

Clarence Smith was being held at the Orange County Jail on $40,000 bail in connection with the 12:20 a.m. blaze, which also injured a police officer who helped rescue two of the children who were trapped in an upstairs bedroom.

The children--two girls, aged 13 and 6, and twin 9-year-old boys--were alone in the two-story townhouse in the 400 block of Hayes Street, Irvine Police Lt. Sam Allevato said.

Smith, who lived with the children’s mother, was supposed to be baby-sitting the sleeping children, Allevato said.

But sometime late Sunday, Smith left the children to visit someone, leaving some hot dogs cooking on the stove, Allevato said.

The children’s mother, identified by police as Shirley Patterson, 33, “had no knowledge” that Smith had left the apartment, Allevato said. “As far as she knew, he was baby-sitting.”

Fire officials said the blaze quickly spread from the kitchen, filling the apartment with smoke. One of the boys called 911, and Officer Louis A. Mendoza was on the scene in less than two minutes.

“I got out of my unit and all I could hear was, ‘Help, help, help me!’--the voice of a little kid,” said Mendoza, 23, who is still on probationary status with the police force.

In all, Mendoza made three trips into the burning apartment to rescue those inside.

On his first trip, he located Smith, who had returned and was leading the two girls down the steps. After leading the three to safety, Mendoza tried twice more to save the twins, who were still trapped upstairs by thick, gray smoke.

“I couldn’t see in front of me at all,” Mendoza said. “It was real hot inside, hard to breath. I went to the floor with a flashlight. I kept yelling, ‘Where are you? Where are you?’ ”

During this time, Mendoza said, Smith “was extremely panicked. . . . He was in shock.”

Holding Smith’s shirt in front of his nose and mouth, Mendoza went back inside for the third and last time.

“I couldn’t handle it,” the officer said. “It was too much to take. I came back outside.”

Minutes later, members of the Orange County Fire Department rescued the two boys, using a ladder to reach a second-story window at the back of the apartment.

In a dramatic 911 tape, released by the Orange County Fire Department, one of the twin boys talks with a dispatcher, describing the progress of the fire and the location of his brother and sisters.

Cautioned by the dispatcher not to jump out the window, the boy shouts to firefighters breaking into the master bedroom, “Help! Help! The back room! Right here! We can’t breath! The room’s full of smoke!”

As the voices of the firefighters are heard on the tape, the boy shouts, “Get my sister, she has asthma!”

Orange County Fire Capt. Dan Young said, “It almost gives you goose bumps to think about” the youngster’s presence of mind.

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Young called Mendoza’s actions impressive, especially in light of the fact that the officer had no protective gear and no specialized fire training.

All of the children, together with Mendoza, were treated for smoke inhalation at Irvine Medical Center. The children were released from the hospital later Monday in their mother’s custody, Allevato said.

Mendoza, who has been on the police force since September after working for the department as a civilian and putting in a stint on the waiting list, was still exhilarated by the experience by Monday afternoon.

“It felt awesome afterward,” he said after he was released from the hospital. “I really felt good.”

After coming home and cradling his own 17-month-old son, Mendoza said, “I kept telling my wife I’d never want to be a fireman. It’s not the kind of job I’d want.”

Damage to the gutted apartment was put at $40,000, fire officials said. Monday morning, a children’s plastic picnic table, toys, a small mattress and two bicycles were stacked in the back-yard patio.

Smith was arrested at the scene, authorities said. Allevato said there was a no-bail warrant for Smith for parole violation. Smith was on parole after being sentenced for marijuana possession, according to the California Department of Corrections.

Patterson also returned to the scene during the fire, according to neighbor Mehri Nik.

“She was saying, ‘Oh my God, what happened?’ ” said Nik, who was evacuated with her two children from their adjoining apartment.

Nik said that Smith was friendly in the two months she and the children lived next door.

“I saw the man with the kids, I didn’t see the mother,” Nik said. “He was usually at home. . . . He was very friendly, normal.”

The children appeared to be clean, well-dressed and happy whenever she saw them in the complex, Nik said.

Apartment officials said Smith’s name was not on the unit’s lease.