A tragic fire that engulfed an assisted living center in Massachusetts has taken the lives of ten individuals, increasing the sadness and putting to the test safety concerns that have long occurred in the facility.
According to the officials, the body of 66-year-old Brenda Cropper who had been hospitalized in a critical condition since July 13 died on Wednesday, July 16, after the deadly fire at Gabriel House Assisted Living Facility in Fall River.
On Thursday, July 17, news came of the announcement by Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn.
On Sunday, July 13, at about 9:40 p.m. the fire erupted on the Oliver Street and emergency personnel arrived at the site that was in a complete state of flames and pandemonium.
Days after the terrible fire, Cropper was fatally injured. There were several people that were found dead at the scene among whom several were rushed to local hospitals including Cropper.
It has already reached ten people dead, and it is one of the worst assisted living facility fires in the history of Massachusetts.
After the fire, Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said: It is an incomprehensible tragedy to all of the families that were involved, and to the community as a whole, especially Fall River.
We are feeling with all the victims and their families.
Eight of the dead have been publicly named so far: Rui Albernaz, 64; Ronald Codega, 61; Margaret Duddy, 69; Robert King, 78; Kim Mackin, 71; Richard Rochon, 78; Eleanor Willett, 86; and Joseph Wilansky, 77. The ninth victim is yet to have his name revealed by the authorities.
The fatal fire has hit the community hard and has proven to be a wake-up call on grave issues about the standards of operation of Gabriel House.
The facility was one that had a record of health and safety policy breaches. Reports of the CBS affiliate WPRI-TV indicated that Gabriel House had received at least 26 citations during 2023-2024. These were failure of reporting emergency cases after 24 hours, uncleanliness and mishandling of medications.
The facility is said to have still been exposed to unacceptable conditions despite filing a correction plan and being granted a temporary operating certificate until December 2025.
Debbie Johnson, a certified nursing assistant at Gabriel House, described the life within the facility in rather a grim way. Talking to WBZ-TV, Johnson said that the building was horrible, filled with cockroaches and bed bugs and wracked with poor maintenance.
Johnson said: they had mice, they had cockroaches, it was dirty, very dirty. The elevator is already out of order during the past four years, and some individuals were trapped in their apartments being served with food.
There are also victims of the fire who have come out with painful experiences as they accuse staff members of being sluggish when it comes to their responses in the face of fire.
Others living in the apartment complex told local media that they were alone to find the way out when the building was filled with smoke.
To make the anger and frustration more intense, Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan came up with the news that the owner of Gabriel House has declined to collaborate with current investigations.
He is only beginning to make me a bit angry as we needed his assistance on some things, and he is even not picking up his phone, Coogan said at a press briefing earlier this week.
These were his people–his care.”
Local and state agencies are currently investigating the cause of the fire as well as evaluating possible criminal responsibility.
In the meantime, the relatives of the victims are claiming responsibilities and saying that the disaster might have been avoided had the previous complaints and infractions been taken into consideration.
With the unfolding of the investigation, there are promises by city officials to change procedures that operate assisted living facilities to ensure that similar disasters do not happen again in the future.
Mayor Coogan assured that, they will investigate this issue and make sure that such carelessness never repeats.
Outside the facility, temporary memorials have appeared after the fire. There are flowers, candles, and touching messages by members of the community showing up on the sidewalks where emergency responders were battling the flames just a few days ago.
In the meantime, fall river grieves the death of ten innocent people and awaits responses.
The death of Brenda Cropper has intensified the grief and also brought a fresh impetus on the part of the advocates and the families in the search of justice.
