Fire kills at least 17 children at unaccredited orphanage

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI —A fire swept through an unaccredited orphanage in Haiti run by a Christian group based in Pennsylvania, killing at least 17 children, the authority for social welfare in the country said Friday.

The cause of the blaze has not been determined, but one official said that investigators are focusing on a burning candle used for light during a blackout. Power shortages are chronic in Haiti, among the Western Hemisphere’s poorest countries, but have become particularly severe in recent weeks.

The Pennsylvania group did not have authorization to operate the orphanage, said Arielle Jeanty Villedrouin, general director of the Institute for Social Welfare and Research, which oversees social welfare programs and is responsible for issuing accreditations.

“It’s a very sad situation,” said Villedrouin, who had cited the candle as the leading investigative theory.

The orphanage, in a suburb of Port-au-Prince, is run by the Church of Bible Understanding, a group that describes itself as a small Christian fellowship with a presence in New York, Florida and California along with Pennsylvania, and an involvement in Haiti since 1977.

The group did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent to its email address and left in a voicemail message at its office in Scranton, Pennsylvania. A woman who answered the phone at the group’s office in Haiti declined to comment and did not identify herself.

By Friday afternoon, dozens of people — including former residents — were on the grounds of the threestory orphanage, its upper stories darkened by smoke. The orphanage’s staff had been taken to a local police precinct for questioning, while the surviving children had been relocated to another orphanage.