FALL RIVER, Mass. — Body camera footage released by the Fall River Police Department on Thursday captures the harrowing moments officers braved flames and smoke inside the Gabriel House when the assisted living facility caught fire Sunday night.
*Strong language is used in the video; viewer discretion is advised*
11 officers and 2 sergeants repeatedly entered the Gabriel House armed only with flashlights and “exceptional courage”, the Fall River Police Department said.
The video, spliced together in multiple clips, shows the officers and sergeants working to save residents for over 40 minutes as smoke built up inside the building.
Officers can be seen going room-to-room, sometimes kicking down the door to ensure all residents had made it out safely.
One officer can be seen crawling on hands and knees to duck beneath thick black smoke building up in a hallway. Another officer can be seen and heard dry-heaving after exiting onto an exterior porch before immediately turning about face and reentering the smoke-filled three-story building.
A pair of officers can be heard discussing getting a firefighter and ladder over to their side of the building before declaring “F**k it” and vaulting into the building and searching for one of the male residents inside.
Several residents who were unable to walk out under their own power were carried out on the shoulders of or between two officers or firefighters. One resident was told he would be taken out on a sled like “the old days at Canobie Park.”
10 of the 68 men and women living inside the facility lost their lives due to the deadly blaze but Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said Wednesday that the fire was “destined” to kill as many as 50-plus people if not for the heroic actions of those who braved the horrific conditions to rescue those inside.
“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.
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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.”
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.
Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quin III has identified other victims killed in the fire as 64-year-old Rui Albernaz, 61-year-old Ronald Codega, 66-year-old Brenda Cropper, 69-year-old Margaret Duddy, 78-year-old Robert King, 71-year-old Kim Mackin, 78-year-old Richard Rochon,77-year-old Joseph Wilansky and 86-year-old Eleanor Willett.
On Thursday, Chief Bacon said five residents remain in the hospital, including one person in critical condition.
Mayor Paul Coogan and IAFF General President Edward Kelly announced on Wednesday that staffing levels at the Fall River Fire Department will increase immediately.
City leaders say now they’ll have six fire trucks fully staffed with four firefighters per truck. Previously, only two fire trucks were fully staffed.
They will start by using overtime shifts and eventually, over the next two years, the plan is to hire 15 to 20 more firefighters because of the tragedy at the Gabriel House Sunday night.
As of Wednesday night, Chief Jeffrey Bacon says they will be putting out overtime shifts for the three apparatus.
The staffing changes come days after the union said inadequate staffing hindered the response to a fire at an assisted living facility that killed 9 and injured 30 others.
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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