As a five-alarm fire engulfed an assisted living residence in Fall River, Massachusetts, on Sunday night, people watching from the sidewalk took in one chaotic scene after another.
Firefighters and nurses scrambled to rescue elderly residents in wheelchairs, some with oxygen tanks, from thick smoke and flames. Other residents, trapped in upstairs apartments, smashed windows and screamed for help.
By the end, nine people were dead and one was in critical condition, officials said.
“This is an unfathomable tragedy for the families involved and for the Fall River community,” said Jeffrey Bacon, the city’s fire chief.
As various agencies began investigating the cause of the fire Monday, the union representing Fall River firefighters lashed out at the city, saying fewer people might have died if leaders had listened to their warnings, over decades, that department staffing was inadequate.
“If this was New Bedford, Boston, Worcester, there would have been 40 firefighters here initially — but there were only 32,” said Capt. Frank O’Regan, a member of the union who spoke to reporters at the scene Monday.
The difference, he said, was crucial in the urgent minutes before victims succumbed. “Probably five more people could have lived,” he said.
Responding to the criticism, Mayor Paul Coogan of Fall River said that he relied on the fire chief to recommend staffing levels, and that the department’s most recent staffing request had been fully met. How the department deploys its personnel to cover shifts is up to them, he added.
Firefighters responded shortly after 9:30 p.m. to reports of a fire at the assisted living facility, Gabriel House, which has about 70 residents, Bacon said at a separate news conference Monday.
He called the response to the fire “tricky and chaotic,” saying that about 50 firefighters struggled to rescue trapped residents and douse the blaze.
Officials said the fire was contained to one wing of the building and that most of the damage inside was from smoke.
Kerry Leckey, 58, who moved into Gabriel House two months ago, said Monday that from her basement apartment, she had not seen any smoke or any sprinklers activated by the fire. She said she fled the building when the odor of smoke from higher floors became intense.
“The smell is what got me moving,” Leckey said, at a community center where survivors had been taken. “Places like that have false alarms a lot of times, so because of that I think people are a little more lax when alarms go off and don’t necessarily jump when they should.”
Leckey said she had bonded quickly with other residents after she moved in. “I met a few people in a very short amount of time that were very nice,” she said, “and I believe three or four of them passed away last night in the fire.”
At the assisted living facility, the smell of smoke lingered in the air Monday as news helicopters flew overhead. Workers boarded up broken windows in the back of the damaged building with sheets of plywood as neighbors stood outside watching.
Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts credited the efforts of emergency workers who carried residents who could not walk to safety.
“Given the vulnerability of this population, some of whom depended on oxygen tanks and wheelchairs, it’s unbelievable there wasn’t an even greater loss of life,” she told reporters at the scene.
Coogan said Monday that the building had sprinklers, and that fire alarms had sounded, but that emergency workers had not yet been able to check whether all warning systems were working properly. “The main concern was getting people out,” Coogan said. “It’s an old building.”
Gabriel House is part of a larger company, Gabriel Care LLC, that also operates adult foster care services in Fall River and western Massachusetts, online records show.
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