Fall River mayor says only 2 Gabriel House employees were working night of deadly assisted living fire
The mayor of Fall River, Massachusetts said only two people were working at the Gabriel House when a fire broke out Sunday night, killing nine residents at the assisted living facility. An employee told CBS News both workers were new to the job.
There were 70 residents living in the building at the time, many of them with mobility issues. Thirty were hurt in the fire and one remains in critical condition. There's no word yet from the State Fire Marshal's office on how or where the fire started.
Mayor Paul Coogan said Tuesday that the owner of the facility, Dennis Etzkorn, has stopped cooperating and is no longer picking up the phone. Etzkorn has not responded to several requests for comment from both CBS News and WBZ-TV this week.
"To me, he should be down here every day. Just like we are, just like you guys are," Coogan said. "But I want him to know that these are his residents, and he might as well push them on the sidewalk and say have a nice day, if he's not going to follow up."
Coogan said at a press conference on Wednesday that he did meet with Etzkorn and he was cooperating again.
Nine people died, all of them between the ages of 61 and 86. They include Eleanor Willett, Margaret Duddy, Vietnam veteran Richard Rochon and Rui Albernaz.
"A lot to take in"
"Everybody still can't process all of this. It's a lot to take in," said Rui's brother, Robert Albernaz. He stopped by the site Tuesday after visiting the funeral home to make arrangements for his brother's service.
"I just don't understand how his room was the last one," Albernaz said. "His room is right beside of an exit, and he didn't come out. I still can't get over that."
Candles lined the sidewalk in front of the building Tuesday night. Earlier in the day, people laid flowers and crosses, including Marie Khoury. Her sister, a longtime resident here, was able to escape Sunday night.
"We are all very grateful to God that she is still with us," Khoury said. "She could've been gone."
While some gathered to grieve, investigators were working on every floor of the building, trying to determine how and where the fire started.
Gabriel House inspections
WBZ obtained several years' worth of inspections of Gabriel House from the city of Fall River Tuesday. They do not detail code violations and show the facility was last inspected by the city in October 2024.
"As of our last inspection, everything was fine with this building," Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon . "We're just one of the several agencies that would receive complaints or anything in that building."
One of the agencies, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs, required Gabriel House to implement a plan of correction after an inspection in October 2023, to improve its handling of medication and emergency preparedness.
At a city council meeting Tuesday night, residents said they're worried about public safety. A representative of the firefighters' union pushed back against the mayor who claimed the union was playing politics by making calls for more staffing in the wake of the tragedy.
"Politics is what cut our companies, and politics is what cost people their lives," Fall River firefighters union president Michael O'Regan said.
