Haiti orphans die in fire
Rose-Marie Louis, a worker at the Orphanage of the Church of Bible Understanding, wanders Friday through the charred remains of the children’s home on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, that was destroyed in a fire that started Thursday night. More than a dozen children were killed. More photos at arkansasonline.com/215fire/
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 worker at the Orphanage of the Church of Bible Understanding in the Kenscoff area outside Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, told The Associated Press that firefighters took about 90 minutes to arrive. The orphanage had been using candles for light because its generator wasn’t working, she said.
About half of the victims 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.
“They could have been saved,”’ he said. “We didn’t have the equipment to save their lives.”
Late Friday afternoon, police raided another home also run by the Church of Bible Understanding and took away several dozen children in a bus over protests from employees.
“‘We are aware of the fire in the children’s home in Haiti,” said Temi J. Sacks, a spokesman for the group, which is based in Scranton, Pa. “It would be irresponsible for us to comment until after all the facts are in.”