Fall River chief fights back tears as he shares stories from scene of deadly Gabriel House fire

FALL RIVER, Mass. — Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon held back tears on Wednesday as he shared harrowing stories of rescues and detailed what firefighters encountered at the scene of the deadly blaze at Gabriel House on Sunday night.

Bacon, during an afternoon news conference, said the raging fire at the assisted-living center was “destined to kill 50-plus people,” but the heroic actions of first responders limited the tragic loss of life to nine residents.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that fire was destined to kill 50-plus people, and that the firefighters from Fall River, in conjunction with the police department and the EMS division, saved all of those lives. Unfortunately, nine were not able to be saved, but that number should have been four to five times higher,” Bacon explained.

Bacon said he spoke with many of his firefighters on Wednesday morning and wanted to share some of their stories.

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The captain of Engine 5 was the first to arrive at Gabriel House. His crew was greeted by flames blowing out the front door of the three-story, 100-unit facility, which opened in 1999 in a former motel built decades earlier.

“He got off the truck and said it was eerily quiet...He knocked down the fire very quickly, to the point that countless lives were saved,” Bacon told reporters. “I think it was a blessing in that residents weren’t yelling out the window at that point...They described seeing faces in windows, and having to decide who they needed to rescue.”

Bacon credited the driver of his department’s Ladder 2 with carrying non-ambulatory residents through black smoke to awaiting police officers and EMS workers.

“The driver single-handedly lifts up each victim, puts them on his shoulder, walks down, single-handedly, down a flight of stairs,” Bacon said. “This might sound remarkable to you: That driver of Ladder 2 repeated that action six times.”

Bacon, who was visibly choked up, thanked the dozens of firefighters who were called to Gabriel House, praising them for their selfless and fearless acts of heroism.

“In the context of firefighting, these are nothing short of heroic,” Bacon said.

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Bacon added, “When all these stories come out, they’ll write books about them, they’ll make movies about them,” Bacon said. “As you can see, the emotions are real, they’re raw.”

Since Sunday’s fire, authorities have identified eight of the nine victims. At least 30 other people were injured.

Years before the fire, Gabriel House was cited for failing to immediately report more than two dozen health and safety incidents, according to regulators’ most recent review of the facility.

The facility had been caring for dozens of aging residents reliant on wheelchairs and oxygen tanks when the fire erupted.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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