Local group faces criticism following fatal orphanage fire in Haiti
SCRANTON (WOLF) — It has been almost a week since a fire gutted an orphanage in Haiti, leaving 15 children dead.
And now a missionary who lives less than a mile from where it happened is saying a religious group in our area should be responsible for their deaths.
Just days after a fire tour through this orphanage in Port-Au-Prince Haiti and all that is left behind is a couple chairs and trash piled up throughout the building.
"I knew it was something big," said Yvonne Trimble, who's a missionary in Haiti.
Trimble lives less than a mile from where it all unfolded.
Yesterday, she got her first glimpse inside the building, where more than a dozen kids spent their final moments.
"It was horrible, I mean I've lived here for 42 years and I've seen a lot of bad things, but this is at the top of the list," said Trimble.
The orphanage is one of two in the area supported through the Church of Bible Understanding, a small Christian Fellowship what Trimble is calling a cult.
It lists its headquarters at this antique warehouse in Scranton, called Olde Good Things.
Trimble says despite the fellowship saying it gave thousands of dollars to a couple orphanages in Haiti, it didn't appear to have necessities, like electricity or mattresses to sleep on.
"There's no way they didn't spend $500 from what I saw," said Trimble.
In response to what Trimble says is negligent homicide, she's filed an IRS tax exempt organization complaint against the church.
When we arrived at the Church's office in Scranton the doors were locked and we rang the doorbell.
One worker saw us, and went to alert someone else who immediately picked up their phone to make a call.
Eventually they exited the front hallway and came back to pick something up, but never opened the door to speak with us.
Right after, we went to the home of Linda McAndrews. who's the wife of the Church's principal officer Timothy McAndrews and the mother of its secretary Tarah McAndrews.
There was no answer.
Trimble says there was no fire extinguisher in the orphanage that held more than 100 children, despite the church saying there were 60.
She also says the Haitian social services closed it down before because of the overcrowding and a rat infestation.
