Son, 9, Flees House Fire; Police Hold Absent Mom

A 45-year-old woman was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of felony child endangerment after an early morning fire destroyed the candle-lit house where her 9-year-old son was alone overnight, police said.

Joan Lynn Opferman of Costa Mesa was held at the Orange County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail after she was arrested at the gutted house she had rented in the 500 block of Hamilton Street, Costa Mesa Police Capt. Tom Lazar said.

The boy, who escaped the fire without injury, was taken into protective custody at Orangewood Children’s Home in Orange.

The house had been lit with candles and lanterns because the electricity had been shut off more than a month ago. It also had no gas or water.

The cause of the 1:36 a.m. fire is under investigation, but Lazar said fire officials suspect that candles and fueled lanterns throughout the single-family, wood-frame house may have started it.

Lazar said police interviewed Opferman at the police station, and investigators decided to arrest her on suspicion of endangerment. Endangerment is defined under California law as actions that place a minor in danger of death or serious injury and can carry a sentence of two, four or six years in prison.

The electric service to the house had been stopped on Sept. 9 for unpaid bills, according Millie Paul, a spokeswoman for Southern California Edison. Paul said five overdue notices were sent to the home, and the last payment received was in May.

“It’s clear there were some prior payment abuses, also,” she said, referring to a history of late payments.

Opferman’s sister, Judy Charley of Costa Mesa, said Opferman has had many financial problems recently. The house has lacked electricity, gas and water because of that, Charley said.

“She’s been way down, just buried by bills,” Charley said Wednesday afternoon. “But she’s a good mom. She’s always had [her son] in mind. They were just getting by. She would ride her bike over to my house in the morning to get him cereal to eat and give him baths at neighbors’ houses. It’s been rough for her.”

Opferman has been out of work and raising money by scavenging items such as old lawn mowers and books from the street and trash to sell at swap shops, Charley said.

“That’s probably where she was when all this happened.”

Nearby residents and police say Opferman apparently left the home on her bicycle about midnight. Ramon Gutierrez said he awoke shortly after 1:30 a.m. when he heard his 9-year-old next-door neighbor banging and screaming at his door.

“I looked out my window and saw the house next door on fire, a big fire, so I opened my door pretty quick,” Gutierrez said. “The boy was very upset and screaming around the house because he thought his mother was inside the house.”

The boy said he was awakened by the sound of his barking dog, a pit bull named Saber, Gutierrez said.

Opferman arrived at the house on bicycle about 45 minutes after the fire started and tried to run past firefighters, believing that her son was inside, Gutierrez said.

Charley said she believed her younger sister was a victim of circumstances.

“She has done wrong and she’s going to end up paying for it, but people always look at the bad thing and not all the circumstances that led up to it,” said Charley, a mother of five grown children. “You can’t justify leaving children alone, but the circumstance here is she was doing what she had to do to survive.”

Charley said she hoped to find out by Friday if she would be able to take her sister’s son into her custody.