Ten elderly people have died from a fire that swept through an assisted living home in Fall River, Massachusetts, where many residents were in wheelchairs or wearing oxygen tanks.
Records and accounts from staff raise concerns about conditions at Gabriel House before the blaze. Those killed range in age from 61 to 86. Dozens of others were injured.
Brenda Cropper, 66, died late last week after being hospitalised in a critical condition, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn III announced. His office did not release any more information about Brenda or about the fire itself, which erupted last Monday evening and left some residents hanging out windows of the three-story facility screaming for help.
The cause remains under investigation, but the district attorney’s office does not believe it to be suspicious. Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said the blaze started in a room on the second floor.
The blaze was the deadliest fire in the state since 1984, when 15 people died in a fire at a rooming house,
Loraine Ferrara said she was rescued through her bathroom window. “I thought I was dead. … I couldn’t breathe. I thought I was going to meet my maker,” she said.
Al Manza said he got a face full of smoke when he opened his door. “All that I could do was just stand there and choke,” Manza said he couldn’t even see the hand of the firefighter who led him to safety through the dense smoke.
Firefighters broke windows and evacuated residents on ladders. In some cases, air conditioning units had to be pushed out of windows to pull people to safety. Many residents were unconscious or trapped and unable to escape on their own.
Gabriel House, founded in 1999, housed around 70 residents at the time of the fire, according to the Department of Fire Services. Two staff members were working overnight.
The facility was set for recertification and a compliance review in November, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services said. Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Aging & Independence, the state agency responsible for certifying assisted living residences, last conducted an onsite visit at Gabriel House at the end of October 2023. The facility was recertified that December, after addressing some areas of noncompliance, largely stemming from missing or delinquent documentation, according to reports.
"The fire at Gabriel House in Fall River is a tragedy," Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey said in a statement. "My heart goes out to those who are waking up to the most horrific news imaginable about their loved ones this morning."
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