Fire at Massachusetts assisted living facility kills nine, injures 30, displaces 70 residents

The cause of a fire at an assisted living facility in Massachusetts that killed nine and injured more than 30 remains unclear and under investigation.

Firefighters responded at approximately 9:50 p.m. last night to the front of the Gabriel House Assisted Living Facility in Fall River, approximately 50 miles south of Boston, as reported by USA Today. While attempting to stop the fire, firefighters began to rescue patients who were trapped inside the facility. Doors were knocked down and patients were rescued through windows as necessary.

At least five firefighters sustained minor injuries fighting the fire, one patient was in critical condition Monday morning and nine were died, according to Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon. Approximately 70 patients lived in the building and more than half required evacuation.

Bacon described last night’s scene for USA Today as “chaotic” as firefighters and police rescued patients by pulling them through windows and carrying some residents who were in wheelchairs out of the building. Some patients frantically called for help while “hanging out of windows looking to be rescued.”

“This is an unfathomable tragedy for the families involved and the Fall River community,” Bacon said.

Rescues were made additionally difficult because of the number of AC window units, according to Bacon, which required that first responders pull patients from smaller windows.

“The windows that would have affected the best rescues had the ACs in them, so rescues had to be done through smaller windows,” Bacon said.

Damage from the fire was limited to one wing of the building, Bacon said, but smoke affected the interior of the facility and caused deaths and injuries.

“The fire attack was very quick, it was just a very smokey fire,” he said.

Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan said the facility will be boarded up and medical files of residents were saved from the fire. Residents were moved to the city’s homeless overflow shelter and city staff and other assisted them with obtaining medications, clothing and other belongings left behind at the facility.

“We just carried out a bunch of medical records. The room they were stored in was salvaged, so we were able to get all those records down so they can get medications for all the displaced people,” Bacon said.