PORT-AU-PRINCE: Fifteen children died in a fire that swept overnight through an orphanage in Haiti run by a U.S. religious group, authorities said on Friday.
The incident has triggered a renewed controversy over the hundreds of unlicensed orphanages in the poorest nation in the Americas.
Two children were burned to death and 13 died due to smoke inhalation in the blaze that ravaged the Pennsylvania-based Church of Bible Understanding’s orphanage in Kenscoff, just south of the capital.
The cause of the blaze was not clear. One of the children at the orphanage told Reuters they had been using candles because the power in the block was out and a generator was not working.
(With inputs from agencies)
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