Furious fire chiefs in the Massachusetts city where nine people died in a blaze at a nursing home overnight are blaming the mayor for the deaths after cuts to the fire service allegedly left crews dangerously understaffed.
Describing the deadly fire as “not only a tragedy, but a travesty,” Edward Kelly, President of the International Association of Fire Fighters, directly blamed Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan for the cuts to vital services in the city some 15 miles southeast of Providence, Rhode Island.
“Lives would have been saved if the Fall River Fire Department was adequately staffed,” Kelly told a press conference in the town on Monday afternoon.
“Fall River Fire Department runs with 10 fire companies. Only two of them are staffed at national standards with four firefighters on those companies. The other eight fire companies only have three firefighters on them,” the representative said.
If the staffing had been at nationally recommended levels, eight more firefighters would have been at the scene, Kelly said.
Union officials blamed decades of staff cutbacks and the closing of fire companies for Sunday night’s tragedy at the Gabriel House facility.
Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
Of the roughly 50 firefighters who responded to Sunday night’s blaze, 30 of them were off-duty, the union said. Five firefighters were injured in the rescue efforts and were released from the hospital later on Monday.”This is an unfathomable tragedy for the families involved and the Fall River community,” the city’s Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said.
Some of the surviving residents recounted the terrifying experience as smoke filled the 26-year-old assisted living facility at around 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
Lorraine Ferrara, one of around 70 residents at the facility, was awakened by a neighbor pounding on her door.
She tried to make her way through the smoke-filled hallway but was forced back into her room after the sprinkler system shot hot water onto her back.
“It was filled with smoke. I opened the window as far as I could, yelling ‘Help! Help! Second floor!’” she said.
A firefighter broke the window and carried her down on a ladder, she said.”I really thought I was going to die. I thought there was no way out,” she said.
Residents praised the firefighters and police for their heroic rescue efforts, but some accused staff members of doing little to help.
“They didn’t knock on one door. They just ran,” Robert Cabral, a resident, said.
Fall River, some 50 miles south of Boston, is home to 94,000 people and is one of the poorest cities in Massachusetts.
Gabriel House opened in 1999 and has 100 units, according to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Aging & Independence.
It promotes studio apartments “for those seniors who cannot afford the high end of assisted living,” on its website, as well as group adult foster care within walking distance.
The facility’s owner, Dennis Etzkorn, did not respond immediately to requests for comment.He is cooperating with “a very extensive investigation,” officials said on Monday.
