The fire of an orphanage in Haiti killed 15 children in the night from Thursday to Friday. Two children died in the orphanage and 13 from suffocation at the Fermathe hospital, according to the judge of the commune of Kenscoff.
The orphanage of Kenscoff, a commune located on the heights of the agglomeration of Port-au-Prince, no longer had legal authorization to operate since 2013 and housed around 66 children.
The fire started shortly after 9 p.m. local time Thursday (2 a.m. in France on Friday). According to an orphanage employee, interviewed by the Associated Press, the firefighters took almost an hour and a half to get there. According to the same employee, the orphanage was using candles to light up, due to a problem with the electricity generator. But the official cause of the fire remains unknown at the moment.
The orphanage was located in an unsanitary two-story building, with bunk beds - some in deplorable condition - crammed into small rooms, with cramped stairs and only an open exit door.
Almost three months ago, a French couple who had come to adopt in Haiti had lost their lives.