FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP/Boston25News) — A Massachusetts firefighters union says inadequate staffing hindered the response to a fire at an assisted living facility that killed nine people on Sunday night, and now the mayor is responding.
The firefighters in Fall River said they could have saved more lives with more manpower.
The blaze late Sunday trapped residents at Gabriel House, a facility about 50 miles south of Boston. Union officials told a news conference Monday that firefighters were unable to mount an adequate response because the city does not have enough staff.
Union officials said the closing of fire companies and cutbacks on staff have been a problem for decades.
International Association of Fire Fighters President Edward Kelly said if staffing had been at the nationally recommended level, there would have been eight more firefighters at the scene Sunday night.
“There’s no doubt that would’ve made a difference in the amount of people that we lost to this terrible fire last night,” Kelly said. “Lives would’ve been saved if the Fall River Fire Department were adequately staffed.”
Speaking with Boston 25 News, Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan says now is not the time for politics.
“I don’t think that’s the time for politics right now i think fall river is better than that,” he said. “We got our numbers to staff everything from department heads from the chiefs, we don’t make the recommendations, they do, and I don’t remember ever cutting anybody, so we’ll see how that goes”
At least 30 other people were hurt in the fire and had to be taken to the hospital.
Officials didn’t say whether or not the building had working fire and smoke alarms.
Residents who survived the blaze said they were quickly overwhelmed by blinding smoke and that they feared for their lives before being rescued.
Firefighters responding to Gabriel House around 9:30 p.m. found heavy fire at the main entrance of the building and residents hanging out of windows and doorways, waiting to be rescued.
Bacon said first responders rescued many residents using ladders.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey praised first responders for their “heroic” work in preventing an “unimaginable loss of life.”
Investigators from the Fall River Fire Department and the State Fire Marshal’s Office are working to determine the cause of the fire.
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