The fire that claimed nine lives in an assisted life installation in Fall River, Massachusetts, “was destined to kill more than 50 people,” according to the local firefighters.
“Unfortunately, nine could not be saved. But that number should have been four to five times,” said Fall River Fire Jeffrey Bacon at a press conference on Wednesday, praising the rapid actions of the first to respond to the “heroic.”
Firefighters who rushed to the fire of the five alarms at Casa Gabriel on Sunday night described seeing faces in the windows and “having to decide who they needed to rescue,” Bacon said, surpassed by emotion.
An researcher takes the measures on Monday, July 14, 2025, near an entrance to the assisted life installation of the Gabriel House after a fire that began Sunday night, in Fall River, Mass.
Steven Senne/AP
A respondent pushed through the strong black smoke inside the building to enter rooms and get the non -ambulatory residents, he said.
A captain in the scene found him “disturbingly calm” when he responded to the main door, where the flames were exploding, said the boss.
“It knocked down the fire very fast, to the point that innumerable lives were saved,” Bacon said.
The joints cover the windows of the assisted life installation of Gabriel House, where a fire killed several people on Sunday, on July 15, 2025 in Fall River, Mass.
Kimberlee CRAP/AP
Nine residents died and dozens were injured in the Gabriel house, which housed some 70 people.
Two people remained in critical condition on Wednesday, Bacon said.
The flowers sit in front of the assisted life installation of the Gabriel house, where a fire killed several people on Sunday, on July 15, 2025, in Fall River, Mass.
Kimberlee CRAP/AP
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Bristol’s County District Prosecutor said “it doesn’t seem to be suspicious.”
Bacon said the fire began in a room on the second floor.
The District Prosecutor’s Office identified the residents killed as: Rui Albernaz, 64, Ronald Codega, 61, Margaret Duddy, 69, Robert King, 78, Kim Mackin, 71, Richard Rochard Rochard, 78, Eleanor Willett, 86, and Joseph Wilansky, 77 years old. The name of the ninth victim, a 70 -year -old woman, has not been released.
