In re Noah L. CA1/5

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Noah appeals only from the court’s dispositional order. We therefore discuss the facts of the offenses underlying his jurisdictional admission only as relevant to that order. On December 10, 2013, at approximately 3:00 a.m., Noah was arrested by an Alameda County sheriff’s deputy. Noah was hiding in some bushes in the immediate vicinity of a house that was on fire. The garage door was open and fire, smoke and water were pouring from the garage.2 The resident and her juvenile son were found asleep in the house. Two lighters and a plastic water bottle were found in the bushes about three feet from where Noah had been initially detained. A battalion fire chief responding to the scene advised the deputy that there had been five other possibly related suspicious fires in and around the City of Dublin in the preceding three days. Noah confessed to the arson, as well as three others, and an attempted arson at another residence. In one earlier arson, on December 6, 2013, the residents of a home were awakened sometime after 9:00 p.m. by the sound of glass breaking. The husband saw that the lower portion of the home was engulfed in smoke, and he and…