A resident of Gabriel House Assisted Living Facility is assisted by a Fall River police officer outside an emergency shelter set up at the Timao Center, after a deadly fire broke out in Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S. July 14, 2025. (Reuters/Ken McGagh)
Share
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
A fire that broke out at an assisted living facility for the elderly near Boston on Sunday night killed at least nine people and injured 30 others, authorities said.
About 70 people lived at the Gabriel House assisted living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, where the fire broke out about 9:30 p.m. on Sunday (0130 GMT Monday), Jake Wark, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Fire Security, said on Monday.
Wark said that about 50 firefighters responded to the incident in Fall River, about 60 miles south of Boston.
The city opened a temporary shelter for surviving residents.
Firefighters rescued numerous occupants of the facility, which is designed for older people to live independently with staff assistance, he said. Several residents were declared dead at the scene, while many others were transported to hospitals, and one person was in critical condition.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey called the fire a tragedy and said the cause was being investigated.
“My heart goes out to those who are waking up to the most horrific news imaginable about their loved ones this morning,” she said in a statement.
Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon told the media that some people were hanging from windows when firefighters arrived, the Boston Globe reported.
Gabriel House opened in 1999 and has 100 units, according to state data. Dennis Etzkorn has been the sole director, president and treasurer of Gabriel Care, the corporation that runs the facility, since its founding.
Efforts to reach Etzkorn for comment were unsuccessful.
In 2015, he agreed to pay $950,000 to the state to settle and dismiss charges of fraud brought by the Massachusetts attorney general’s office over an alleged scheme of offering kickbacks of $150 for referrals of customers to Gabriel Care who use the state’s health insurance company, MassHealth, court records show.
—
(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan and Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Rich McKay; Editing by Toby Chopra, Frank McGurty, Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)
RELATED TOPICS:
Trump Says He Will Order Voter ID Requirement for Every Vote
16 hours ago
Greta Thunberg Joins Flotilla Heading for Gaza With Aid
16 hours ago
Chicago Mayor Says Police Will Not Aid Federal Troops or Agents
16 hours ago
Post-War Gaza Plan Sees Relocation of Population, ‘Digital Token’ for Palestinian Land: Washington Post
16 hours ago
Labor Day Quiz: Do You Know What a Knocker-Upper Is?
17 hours ago
Judge Blocks Pillar of Trump’s Mass Deportation Campaign
2 days ago
Visalia Driver Arrested for DUI After Multiple Crashes and Pedestrian Injured
2 days ago
Fresno County Garnet Fire Grows to 18,748 Acres in Sierra National Forest
16 hours ago
Categories

Fresno County Garnet Fire Grows to 18,748 Acres in Sierra National Forest

Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet

Trump Says He Will Order Voter ID Requirement for Every Vote

Greta Thunberg Joins Flotilla Heading for Gaza With Aid

Chicago Mayor Says Police Will Not Aid Federal Troops or Agents

Post-War Gaza Plan Sees Relocation of Population, ‘Digital Token’ for Palestinian Land: Washington Post
