At least 30 people were hurt.

While a firefighters’ union blamed insufficient staffing for hampering response efforts and raising the death toll, this view was challenged by the mayor. Furthermore, the fire chief commented that no amount of personnel could have sufficiently handled the situation.

Meanwhile, several residents who praised firefighters and police for heroic rescue efforts said staff members did little to help.

“They didn’t knock on one door,” Robert Cabral said.

Fire crews arrived at the Gabriel House facility in Fall River, located about 80 kilometers south of Boston, at approximately 9:50 p.m. on Sunday (11:50 a.m. Monday AEST), confronting intense smoke and flames at the building’s front.

The Bristol County district attorney’s office said in a statement that the fire’s cause “does not appear to be suspicious at this time”.

Its origin remains under investigation, authorities said.

Lorraine Ferrara, one of about 70 residents at the facility, awoke to a neighbour pounding on her door.

She tried to make her way through the smoke in the hallway but retreated to her room as the sprinkler system shot hot water onto her back.

As her room filled with smoke, Ferrara opened her window and yelled.

A firefighter broke the window and carried her down the ladder, she said.

“I really thought I was going to die,” she said.

“I thought there was no way out.”

That fear mixed with anger as she watched two employees run from the building.

“They left us alone and ran out into the parking lot,” she said.

“I was hanging out the window — ‘Help! Help!’ and they just kept running.”

The dead ranged in age from 61 to 86, authorities said.

The Bristol County district attorney’s office identified seven of the deceased as Rui Albernaz, 64; Ronald Codega, 61; Margaret Duddy, 69; Robert King, 78; Kim Mackin, 71; Richard Rochon, 78; and Eleanor Willett, 86.

The office said a 70-year-old woman and 77-year-old man were still pending notification of family.

Gabriel House opened in 1999 and has 100 units, according to Massachusetts Executive Office of Aging and Independence.

Its website promotes studio apartments “for those seniors who cannot afford the high end of assisted living” as well as group adult foster care within walking distance of shopping, restaurants and churches.

“If an emergency occurs, no matter the time, there will be someone ready to help,” the website states.

Dennis Etzkorn, the facility’s owner, declined to comment, but officials said he was cooperating with what Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon called “a very extensive investigation.”

District Attorney Tom Quinn called the fire a “terrible tragedy” in a statement that also commended first responders “bringing many of the residents to safety while being confronted with very difficult circumstances”.

Firefighters union decries lack of staff, equipment

About 50 firefighters responded to the scene, including 30 who were off-duty.

Police also helped break down doors and carried about a dozen residents to safety. Five injured firefighters were released from the hospital Monday.

“You couldn’t have had enough people here to save everybody that needed help last night,” Bacon said.

But officials with the firefighters union said the closing of fire companies and cutbacks on staff have been a problem for decades.

If staffing had been at the nationally recommended level, eight more firefighters would have been at the scene Sunday night and “lives would’ve been saved,” Edward Kelly, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters union, said.

Captain Frank O’Reagan said there was no breathing equipment available when he arrived, so he started going door to door on the third floor without an air tank.

“First room, empty. Second door I kicked in, body. Next room, empty. Next room, body,” he said.

“I searched as much as a could but after a while you just can’t take that much smoke.”

O’Reagan’s brother and fellow firefighter Michael O’Reagan said he was shocked that 40 minutes after firefighters arrived, a large part of the building had not been searched.

“We did the best we could with what we had, and what we had was not enough,” Michael O’Reagan, president of the Fall River firefighters’ union, said.

Mayor Paul Coogan said the fire department is staffed based on the recommendation from the fire chief.

“We staff the fire department at the number the chief asked for,” he said.

“We’re not even 24 hours into this and that’s going to be a priority, not the families?”

Joe Alves, who lives several houses down from the facility, said he saw officials pulling bodies, people in wheelchairs and injured pets out of the building, with some pouring water bottles on burns.

“It was terrible,” he said, choking up slightly.

Clever Parra, who lives behind the facility, said he joined several other neighbours to help evacuate residents through the windows.

The 40-year-old construction worker described going up a ladder and seeing a man inside attempting to open a window to escape the flames.

After trying on his own, Parra turned to a firefighter to break the window.

The firefighter “sent the guy to me feet first and I take the guy out and bring him down,” he recalled.

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey offered state assistance to the city’s mayor, condolences to the families of those who died and gratitude to first responders.

Brian Doherty, president of the Massachusetts Assisted Living Association, said state officials were working with long-term care facilities to find homes for displaced residents.

Paul Lanzikos, a former Massachusetts Secretary of Elder Affairs and co-founder of the advocacy group Dignity Alliance, said the group was concerned by what has been reported about the lack of fire drills, low number of staff for a highly dependent population and safety issues such as a broken elevator and air conditioners in the windows.

“It’s a terrible tragedy that should have never happened,” Lanzikos said.

City is one of the poorest in Massachusetts

With about 94,000 residents, Fall River is the state’s 10th-largest city and one of its poorest.

The blue-collar community in southern Massachusetts was once a global centre for textile manufacturing, but it suffered population loss and economic hardship as the industry declined.

Recent decades have seen some new development and investment, but the city has also been rocked by scandal.

Former Mayor Jasiel Correia was convicted in a corruption trial and sentenced to six years in prison in 2021.

Survivors of the fire were ushered to a temporary housing centre about 800 metres from their former home, many of them in shock after losing most of their belongings.

Some broke down in tears, others threw out names — desperate to know who was still alive.

Staffers handed out sandwiches, beverages and even canes for those who did not have time to grab their medical equipment in the smoke and flames.

Neal Beck, who had lived at Gabriel House for six years, said he was rescued by ladder from his bathroom window.

“I’ve been homeless before,” Beck said.

“I guess I’ll be homeless again.”

Head cook Paul Ferreira was off the clock Sunday night but rushed to the scene and watched as bodies were removed from the building.

He grew emotional describing the community of people who have long struggled to find affordable housing.

“Not knowing it was the last time I was cooking for them, it’s sad. They become part of your family,” Ferreira said.

“Some of these people have no family members. Where are they going to go now?”