The orphanage, in a suburb of Port-au-Prince, is run by the Church of Bible Understanding, a group that describes itself as a small Christian fellowship with a presence in New York, Florida and California along with Pennsylvania, and an involvement in Haiti since 1977.

The group did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent to its email address and left in a voice mail message at its office in Scranton, Pa. A woman who answered the phone at the group’s office in Haiti declined to comment and did not identify herself.

By Friday afternoon, dozens of people — including former residents — were on the grounds of the three-story orphanage, its upper stories darkened by smoke. The orphanage’s staff had been taken to a local police precinct for questioning, while the surviving children had been relocated to another orphanage.

Gardy Charles, 36, who said he had spent 25 years at the orphanage, was among those who had stopped by. “The whole country has been raised by this orphanage,” he said of the generations of children who had lived there.

According to its website, the group opened its first orphanage in Haiti about four decades ago with six children, and now runs two orphanages with about 150 children and supports others with weekly food deliveries. The residents of the orphanages range from infants to young adults, the group said.