There’s still no word yet on what caused the tragic deadly fire at the Gabriel House assisted living home in Fall River, Massachusetts.
Nine residents, all over the age of 60, were killed in the fire late Sunday night. Thirty were hurt and one remained in critical condition Tuesday. The Fall River fire is the deadliest in Massachusetts since 15 people were killed in 1984 in a rooming house fire in Beverly.
At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon deferred all questions about the fire investigation to the state Department of Fire Services.
“A full investigation is underway to determine the cause of the fire, assess system performance, and identify any contributing factors. This includes thorough review of staffing, response times, fire suppression tactics, and building safety systems,” Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan’s office said in a statement Tuesday. “We will allow this process to be guided by facts, not assumptions, and we ask the public to do the same.”
Bristol County District Attorney Tom Quinn said Monday the cause “does not appear to be suspicious at this time.”
Fall River Fire Department staffing
Bacon did face several questions Tuesday about staffing at the fire department.
The firefighters’ union said Monday that the Fall River Fire Department was understaffed. Edward Kelly, the general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters said there would have been eight more firefighters at the scene if they had been staffed properly. The mayor said the city staffs the department to the number the fire chief requests.
The National Fire Protection Association recommends four firefighters per company. The union said most Fall River companies operate with three. However, the President of the Massachusetts Fire Chiefs’ Association said many departments across the state struggle to meet that ideal standard.
Bacon said Tuesday he’s always looking for more firefighters, but doesn’t know if it would have changed what happened Sunday at all.
“You could have had 100 firefighters show up at that scene and it wouldn’t have been enough. So when you have a scene like that, you can’t plan your staffing based on a 40-year worst-case incident,” the chief said.
“There’s nobody who could do that. But I’m proud of the 35 firefighters that showed up. I can’t disagree with the union’s assertion that if there were more firefighters there that we could have done things more efficiently and better. I don’t know if it would have saved lives. That’s speculation.”
Bacon said he’s “focusing my firefighters on the 50+ lives that were saved at that incident based on their heroics. And that’s what I have to focus on for my mental health and their mental health to get through it.”
“The current model we have is less firefighters, more overtime. That’s 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,” Bacon said.
Gabriel House staffing
The fire chief was asked if there were enough staff at Gabriel House Sunday night to help residents when the fire started. He deferred those questions to the assisted living facility, which had not responded to WBZ-TV, as of Tuesday afternoon
The owner of Gabriel House, Dennis Etzkorn, is said to be cooperating with authorities and told the Boston Globe he will “provide them with any information they may need.”
Investigators are looking at several possible issues that may have made fighting the fire and saving residents more difficult. Bacon said Monday that air conditioners in the windows were obstructions for firefighters during the rescues.
Resident Lorraine Ferrara said when she walked into the hallway during the fire she was hit by hot water from the sprinkler system. She went back into her room and later was saved by a firefighter who broke a window and got her out onto a ladder.
Bacon said Tuesday that sprinkler systems are not designed to put out fires, but instead to hold the flames back until firefighters can arrive.
“She didn’t hear any smoke detectors”
Bill Berlo’s sister Theresa has lived in Gabriel House for 17 years. She told him the sprinklers did go off during the fire, but there were no smoke detectors. She was saved from her basement room by a firefighter.
“She didn’t hear any smoke detectors. That’s the one thing, the common thing I heard when I was talking to all the people yesterday. If that was the case, maybe someone should look into that,” Berlo told reporters Tuesday.
Some residents told WBZ-TV Monday they heard alarms in the hallways, but not the rooms, during the fire.
The alarms were heard in the background during a news conference Monday morning, hours after the fire. However, Bacon told reporters Monday he didn’t know if they were working at the time of the fire.
During Tuesday’s news conference, he repeatedly referred any questions about the investigation to the state Department of Fire Services.
WBZ has reached out to Etzkorn for comment on the sprinklers, smoke detectors and staffing at the home on the night of the fire, but he has not yet responded.
