Haiti officials say 15 kids died in fire at residential facility

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A fire swept through a Haitian children’s home run by a Pennsylvania-based religious nonprofit group, killing 15 children, officials said Friday.

Rose-Marie Louis, a child care worker at the home, said the fire began around 9 p.m. Thursday and firefighters took about 90 minutes to arrive. The orphanage had been using candles for light due to problems with its generator and inverter, she said.

About half of those who died at the Orphanage of the Church of Bible Understanding in the Kenscoff area outside Port-auPrince were babies or toddlers and the others were roughly 10 or 11 years old, Louis said.

Rescue workers arrived at the scene on motorcycles and didn’t have bottled oxygen or the ambulances needed to transport the children to the hospital, said Jean-Francois Robenty, a civil protection official.

The Church of Bible Understanding lost accreditation for its homes after a series of inspections beginning in November 2012. Haitian inspectors faulted the group for overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and not having enough adequately trained staff.

“We are aware of the fire in the children’s home in

Haiti,” said Temi . Sacks, a spokesman for the group. “It would be irresponsible for us to comment until after all the facts are in.”

The Church of Bible Understanding, based in Scranton, Pennsylvania, operates two homes for nearly 200 children in Haiti as part of a “Christian training program,” according to its most recent nonprofit organization filing.

It identifies the homes as orphanages, but it is common in Haiti for impoverished parents to place children in residential care centers, where they receive lodging and widely varying education for several years but are not technically orphans.

DIEU NALIO CHERY/AP A pregnant woman is overcome with grief Friday after finding out that her twin children died in the blaze that swept through a residential facility Thursday in Kenscoff, Haiti.