The number of fatalities increases on 10 in devastating Massachusetts Assisted Living Facility Fire – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sport

(CNN) – Ten people died after a facility for assisted living in Massachusetts caught fire on Sunday evening and the older residents stormed into their windows to scream and ask for help when smoke filled the corridors.

The fire in the Gabriel House Assisted Living Facility In River, the fatal fire in Massachusetts has been in Massachusetts since 1984, reported CNN partner WCVB.

The 66 -year -old Brenda Cropper had been hospitalized in critical condition since the fire, and the public prosecutor's office of the Bristol district announced her death on Saturday and brought the death to 10.

The office initially wrongly reported that it died on Thursday and then revised the number of fatalities to nine and described the error as “false communication”. On Saturday the office announced that Cropper died on Friday afternoon.

The nine other victims died on Sunday evening, when the fire broke through the facility and led a hectic reaction to rescue life.

“I thought I was dead,” said Loraine Ferrara, the local Loraine, who was pulled out of her bathroom window on Sunday evening. “I thought I would hit my creator.”

It was impossible to get to the starting door through the dazzling smoke, Ferrara said to WCVB. “I had never seen anything like this in my life. I couldn't breathe.”

Sacrifice stopped in the three -story Gabriel House from windows and asked to be saved, and the fire brigade chief from Fall River, Jeffrey Bacon, said reporters before the facility.

Officials from the fire brigade union later argued that it may have made it more difficult to save the residents and effectively combat the fire.

Seven of the victims were identified as: 64-year-old Rui Sanbernaz; 61-year-old Ronald Codega; 69-year-old Margaret Duddy; 78-year-old Robert King; 71-year-old Kim Mackin; 78-year-old Richard Rochon; And 86-year-old Eleanor Willett, said the district prosecutor of Bristol, Thomas M. Quinn, III.

Two more sacrifices-a 70-year-old woman and a 77-year-old manwurden not named immediately until she notifies her next relationship.

An investigation of the cause of the fire continues, but “the matter does not seem to be suspicious at this point,” said the district prosecutor in a press release on Monday afternoon. The state police in Massachusetts support the examination of the cause of the fire.

According to the prosecutor, around 30 inhabitants, including one in critical condition, were brought to local hospitals for treatment.

The next hospital, Saint Anne, is less than a block from Gabriel House. The facility treated 15 people overnight, spokesman Kelly Brennan told CNN. Two were transferred to the Rhode Island Hospital in Providence for the trauma supply of level 1. Four were released and nine remained in the hospital in stable condition.

The Charlton Memorial Hospital, about two miles from the facility for assisted living, received 28 patients, with the spokesman Kaitlyn Johnson being looked after eight on Monday afternoon.

Five firefighters were taken from the scene with “mostly small injuries” and have been released since then, said the fire chief.

Hectic reaction

According to the district lawyer's press release, 911 calls were made shortly after 9:30 p.m. by Gabriel House.

“I went to my room door, I opened it and the smoky smoke from the hallway went straight into my face.” I thought it would be the end of everything. “

Manza couldn't even see the policeman's hand who led him to safety due to the smoke.

First aiders pleaded for additional help in saving residents, many of whom were passed out or could not run, as said from the broadcasting audio from Sunday evening.

“We need a recall. We need workers,” says one person in the recording.

A response who requested more medical units has been announced: “All medical units are currently in use, and we are trying to demand mutual help to meet our fire brigade stations and get other doctors.”

In some cases, firefighters had to push air conditioners out of the windows to get the residents out, said the president of their union.

More than 50 firefighters – including 30 who were not off -the -work – joined the rescue efforts after an automatic alarm system triggered the emergency call, Bacon said: “Every police officer in the city was here too, and everyone saved people.”

A woman spoke by phone with her father – a resident in Gabriel House – while trying to find a way out, she said to WCVB.

“He was on the floor and talked to me, and I cry and tell him: 'break the window. Try to break it because he is so weak and he couldn't break it.”

She was able to lead firefighters to her father's location so that he could be saved, she said to WCVB.

The von Rochon family who died in the fire said that the veteran from Vietnam had suffered from PTSD and homelessness and often could not afford health care after the war.

“As a country, we should better take care of veterans,” the family told CNN in a statement. “You served for our country. The least we can do is ensure that you live a happy healthy retirement.”

According to the State Department of Health & Social Services, Gabriel House has been in operation since 1999.

Around 70 inhabitants lived in the building at the time of the fire, said the Ministry of Fire Brigade.

The facility has a 24-hour staff, according to his website, and Bacon told CNN that two employees worked overnight. Institutions for assisted living in Massachusetts must “always have enough staff to do emergencies and meet the requirements of the residents, as they are necessary from resident service plans,” according to the Executive Office of Aging & Independence.

“An enormous tragedy”

The mayor of Fall River, Paul Coogan, described the fire in an interview with CNN on Monday as “an enormous tragedy”.

The state police of Massachusetts were on site overnight, he said and added that he had been waiting for an official report on the cause of the disaster.

“It is a tragedy, no matter how it happened or what started, but at the same time we want to get to the bottom,” said Coogan.

The governor of Massachusetts Maura Healy visited the scene on Monday morning.

“All of these people needed help,” said Healey at a press conference. “As they saw, many were in a wheelchair. Many were immobile. Many had tanks of oxygen. They were severely affected.”

“Everyone overwhelmed”

Michael O'Rregan, President of the River Fire Brigade Union, was one of the non -serving firefighters who arrived to fight against the fire.

“When I arrived here, I saw everyone overwhelmed,” he said at a press conference on Monday. Firefighters were “divided between those they could see, and the search for those who could not see them, and then there were crews who actively dealt with fire suppression.”

It took “a lot of time” to free every resident from the building, he said. Firefighters broke through windows and used ladders to access the building.

O'regan and several other firefighters had no breathing equipment to deal with the strong smoke, he said. “I didn't have time to get what it takes and we had no additional things, so we did what we had to do,” he said.

His brother, the fireman Frank O'Rregan, arrived about 40 minutes after the incident and found some residents trapped on the third floor, he said.

“I couldn't believe that after all this time there was still a full area with captured people,” he said. “It was terrible.”

It was one of the events with the “worst loss of life” that he saw in his career, he said.

Owner of the facility, which was previously exposed to complaints about complaints

The owner of Gabriel House, Dennis Etzkorn, was previously charged with the implementation of a slogan and has exposed himself to complaints in which he was accused of sexually harassing employees.

The criminal complaints were later fallen by prosecutors, and the lawsuits were rejected out of court according to CNN.

Etzkorn said that he and his family were “destroyed by the tragedy” and promised to work with the authorities, he said in a statement.

“Our thoughts are with each of our residents, their families, our employees and the brave first aiders,” said Etzkorn in the explanation. “We will continue to work with the authorities and provide you with all the information that you need during the entire examination process in relation to the cause and the origin of this fire.”

In 2012, the public prosecutors of Massachusett's Etzkorn, his business Gabriel Care, LLC and another employee, accused indictment in connection with illegally paid setbacks for the reception of Medicare patients.

Etzkorn, his company and his employee were not guilty of the charges. After more than three years of legal proceedings, the prosecutors dropped the indictment in December 2015 after a judge had ejected important evidence and decided that this had not been properly obtained.

If Etzkorn had been convicted of the indictment, Gabriel House's possession would probably have been banned. According to the provisions of Massachusetts, owners of institutions for assisted living during a certification process must testify every two years that no owner with at least 25% interest in a facility was determined “ever against a local, state or federal law, a regulation, regulation or other laws in relation to a health facility.

Between 2003 and 2013, Etzkorn was sued at least three times by former employees in front of the Federal Supreme Court who accused him of sexual harassment. According to the records, these cases were rejected out of court.

The union of the firefighters throws the alarm out of lower employment

After the fire of Edward Kelly, President of the International Association of Firefighters, Fall River was subjected to the fire brigade.

The national standard demands four firefighters per company, said Kelly. But only two of the 10 companies from Fall River meet this standard, he said. The other eight companies work with three firefighters each.

“Last night, if they had been properly occupied, eight other firefighters had had an impact on the national standards last night,” said Kelly. “There is no doubt that the number of people we lost to this terrible fire last night would have made life saved.”

Bacon confirmed that the staff was “a struggle that we have been running in this city for generations”.

“We would like to have four on every apparatus,” the fire chief told CNN. The River case has not had four firefighters per device since the 1980s or 90s, said Bacon, who said that it was “always the goal of returning to this number”.

At the height of the reaction, there were around 65 firefighters at the scene, said Bacon.

Coogan, the mayor, distributed firefighters from the boss's recommendations, he told CNN. The department has a total of 140 firefighters, he said.

Michael O'Rregan said: “We did the best we could, what we had – and what we had was not enough.”

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