Five more patients who died in the Gabriel House fire in Fall River, Massachusetts may have lived if the local fire department had been fully staffed.
The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) responded Tuesday to the outcome of the Sunday night fire approximately 50 miles south of Boston in which nine assisted living patients died and 30 were hospitalized. Five Fall River fire fighters were also injured.
“Last night was not only a tragedy for Fall River, but it was also a travesty for the people in that building,” said IAFF General President Edward Kelly.
Many of Gabriel House’s 70 residents were trapped inside the building, some because window AC units prevented fire fighters from using windows to rescue them.
Fall River MA Local 1314 President Michael O’Reagan responded to the emergency although he was at home and off duty.
“What I saw when I came here last night was something short of miraculous. I can’t say enough good things about what my fire fighters did and how they reacted and the lives that they saved,” O’Reagan said.
He added that the Fall River fire fighters did the best they could with what they had but that was not enough. For many years, public safety has been a line item and lives a budgetary concern in Fall River.
“Last night was an example of this,” O’Reagan said.
His brother, Local 1314 Capt. Frank O’Reagan, who also responded off-duty Sunday night, said many patients in the building were disabled and required assistance to escape the fire.
“When I got here, fire fighters on scene had already done an unbelievable amount of work making rescues out of windows and down stairways. They were really beat up,” Frank O’Reagan said.
According to Kelly, only 32 Fall River fire fighters initially responded to Sunday night’s fire. If fully staffed, the department would have had 40 fire fighters at the scene. Kelly said he personally believes that five more lives could have been saved.
As an example, he said that nearby New Bedford has nine fire companies and each runs with four fire fighters per truck.
“New Bedford has fewer companies, but more fire fighters at a fire like this. Fall River fire fighters, some off-duty without gear, saved dozens of lives, but it wasn’t enough. This city deserves better,” Kelly said.
The national standard is four fire fighters per truck, but only two of Fall River’s 10 fire companies are fully staffed. The other eight companies run with only three per truck, which, according to Kelly, costs lives.
Companies that run with three fire fighters per truck are 25 percent less efficient than companies with four per truck, a National Institute of Standards and Technology study shows.
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Rebecca Barnabi
