Fifteen children killed in Haiti orphanage fire
Fifteen children have died in Haiti after a fire swept via an orphanage on the outskirts of the administrative centre.
The reason for the fire was being investigated, but reports citing staff and children said candles were being used rather than electricity.
The orphanage, run by a US-based Christian group, was one of hundreds in Haiti operating without official authorization.
Authorities are now attempting to support and re-house the surviving children.
Arielle Jeanty Villedrouin, director of the Institute for Social Welfare, said that, during the fire, about 60 children were residing in the unlicensed orphanage, operated by the Pennsylvania-based Church of Bible Understanding.
"We will place them [the survivors] in a transit centre while we do research on the family and see if we can reunite them with their parents," she told Reuters news agency.
The fire at the orphanage, located south of the administrative centre Port-au-Prince, began on Thursday evening. Officials said two children were killed in the blaze and 13 others died at hospital therefore of smoke inhalation.
Candles have been lit on the night time of the fire because the building's generator was broken, according to reports.
Local judge Raymonde Jean Antoine told AFP news agency the orphanage was not authorised to use since 2013.
She said it did not meet basic standards, describing the living conditions there as "truly, truly neglected".
"All we see are children living like animals," she said, adding that there were no fire extinguishers.
On its website, the Church of Bible Understanding says it opened its first orphanage in Haiti 40 years back. The organisation said its "main aim" was to "spread the Gospel to any and all who will receive it".
It hasn't yet commented on the fire.
Some 30,000 children stay in more than 760 orphanages in Haiti, which 15% are officially registered, according to the charity Lumos, that was founded by author JK Rowling and seeks to get rid of the institutionalization of children.
Around 80% of the children surviving in Haiti's orphanages have at least one living parent.
Orphanages proliferated in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Poverty and a lack of usage of healthcare and education are among the reasons that children with living parents end up being housed in them.
