A fire engulfed a Massachusetts assisted-living facility, killing 9 people. Here’s what we know

By Hanna Park, Andy Rose and Zoe Sottile

(CNN) — Elderly residents – some in wheelchairs and some dependent on oxygen tanks – were blinded by deadly smoke as they tried to escape an assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, which caught fire Sunday evening.

Calls to 911 reporting the fire at Gabriel House began coming in shortly after 9:30 p.m., marking the start of a prolonged emergency response to rescue the roughly 70 people who lived there.

Despite efforts by scores of firefighters – nearly half of whom were off duty at the time – and “every police officer in the city,” nine Gabriel House residents died in the fire, according to officials. Those killed range in age from 61 to 86. Dozens of others were injured, one critically.

Some residents, desperate to escape, hung out of windows, begging to be rescued, Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said. The blaze was the deadliest fire in the state since 1984, when 15 people died in a fire at a rooming house, CNN affiliate WCVB reported.

Authorities, including the Massachusetts State Police, say the cause of the fire is unclear but “does not appear to be suspicious at this time,” Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn, III said Monday.

“It’s a tragedy, no matter how it happened or what started it,” Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan told CNN.

Here’s what we know as the investigation continues:

‘All that I could do was just stand there and choke’

Many Gabriel House residents – unable to walk or reliant on oxygen tanks – were trapped as smoke filled the hallways.

Loraine Ferrara told WCVB 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.”

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 told WCVB, noting 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, according to the firefighters’ union president. Many residents were unconscious or trapped and unable to escape on their own.

One woman whose father lived at Gabriel House desperately tried to guide him to safety while they were on the phone.

“He was on the floor talking to me, and I am crying, telling him, ‘Break the window. Try to break it,’ because he is so weak, and he couldn’t break it,” she told WCVB. Her father was rescued after she was able to direct firefighters to his location.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy emphasized the unique challenges of rescuing the assisted-living residents after visiting the scene, saying, “All of these people needed assistance.”

“Many were in wheelchairs. Many were immobile. Many had oxygen tanks. They were severely compromised,” the governor said.

Scope of rescue effort ‘overwhelmed’ first responders

Firefighters and police sped to the scene of the fire after the assisted-living facility’s automatic alarm system triggered an emergency call. Still, first responders pleaded for additional help rescuing residents, many of whom were unconscious or unable to walk, according to Broadcastify audio from Sunday night.

At the response’s peak, about 65 firefighters were on the scene – nearly half of whom rushed to help even though they were off duty. “Every police officer in the city” also rushed to the scene, the fire chief said. “Everybody was rescuing people.”

“When I got here, what I saw was everyone overwhelmed,” said Michael O’Regan, one of the off-duty firefighters who responded and the president of the Fall River firefighters’ union.

Rushing to the fire meant going without breathing equipment for some of the off-duty responders, O’Regan said. “I didn’t have time to go get the stuff, and we didn’t have any extra stuff, so we did what we had to do.”

Frank O’Regan, Michael’s brother and fellow firefighter, said he was horrified when he arrived 40 minutes into the response to find residents still trapped on Gabriel House’s third floor.

“I couldn’t believe that after all this time, there was still a full area with people trapped,” he said, calling it one of the events with the “worst loss of life” he’s seen in his career, he said.

Understaffing of the Fall River Fire Department limited the response to Sunday’s fire, according to Edward Kelly, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters. National standards call for four firefighters per company, but only two of Fall River’s 10 companies meet that, he said, noting eight more firefighters could have been available if the standard was met.

Bacon, the fire chief, acknowledged the shortfall and said that particular standard hasn’t been met in the city since the 1980s or 90s. On Tuesday, Bacon described the operating model of his department as “less firefighters and more overtime,” saying it “worked for us, but it’s also working our firefighters to the bone, and it’s going to lead to more injuries and it’s going to lead to more issues down the road.”

The fire chief praised his staff for saving dozens of lives. Previously, Bacon said rescues involving nursing homes or assisted-living facilities housing people with mobility or respiratory issues are “the worst-case-scenario” for the fire department “because it’s difficult to save anybody.”

“The staff on hand went above and beyond and did more work than they absolutely should have been asked to do. They worked themselves harder than they should have had to,” he said. “But the work that they did saved a ton of lives on that call.”

What we know about Gabriel House

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 Sunday, Bacon said.

The facility was set for recertification and a compliance review in November, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services told CNN. 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 reviewed by CNN.

Gabriel House’s owner, Dennis Etzkorn, said he and his family are “devastated by the tragedy” that occurred Sunday night and pledged full cooperation with investigators.

“Our thoughts are with every one of our residents, their families, our staff, and the brave first responders,” Etzkorn said in the statement. “We will continue to cooperate with the authorities and provide them with any information they may need throughout the investigative process regarding the cause and origin of this fire.”

Etzkorn faced criminal charges more than a decade ago that may have banned him from operating an assisted-living facility if he’d been convicted. He was accused of running a scheme to illegally pay kickbacks in order to receive Medicare patients, but prosecutors dropped the charges after a judge ruled key evidence had been obtained improperly, according to records reviewed by CNN.

Between 2003 and 2013, Etzkorn was sued in federal court at least three times by former employees who accused him of sexual harassment. Those cases were settled out of court, according to records.

Victims range in age from 61 to 86

Authorities have identified seven of the nine Gabriel House residents who died in Sunday’s fire. Three were in their 60s, five were in their 70s, and the oldest was 86 years old.

Among them was Richard Rochon, a 78-year-old Vietnam veteran. Rochon’s family mourned his death by highlighting the struggles he endured throughout his life – including PTSD, homelessness and affording health care – and called for better treatment of American veterans.

“We as a country should take care of veterans better,” the family said in a statement to CNN. “They have served for our country; the least we can do is make sure they live a happy healthy retirement.”

Around 30 residents were hospitalized after the fire, including one person in critical condition, the district attorney said. CNN has reached out to area hospitals for an update on the hospitalized.

A total of 18 residents were taken to Saint Anne’s Hospital and most of them have been or are ready to be discharged, Kelly Brennan, a hospital spokesperson, said Tuesday.

But two of those residents were transferred to a trauma center in Rhode Island, where one of them remains in critical condition, Brennan said.

Dozens of residents displaced by the fire were placed in temporary housing Monday, and seven people were still waiting to be transferred from a displacement center to other facilities on Tuesday, Bacon said.

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CNN’s Jason Carroll, Sarah Boxer, Jillian Sykes, Casey Tolan, Isabelle Chapman, Majlie de Puy Kamp and Cindy Von Quednow contributed to this report.