Survivors of deadly fire at Fall River assisted living facility recall terror

FALL RIVER, Mass. — Residents who were rescued from a deadly fire at an assisted living facility in Fall River on Sunday night spent Monday recalling a terror-filled evening that ended with the deaths of some of their close friends.

Lorraine Ferrara, a resident of the Gabriel House on Oliver Street, said she was overwhelmed by smoke on Sunday night and couldn’t make it to the fire exit.

“I got up and opened my door, and the smoke just hit me. It filled my whole room and the bathroom,” Ferrara said. “I tried to get out, I couldn’t get out...The smoke and the sprinkler system burned me. It was hot, the sprinkler system.”

Ferrara didn’t think she would make it out alive.

“I thought I was going to die. I thought this was it,” Ferrara said. “It’s all over, it’s all over for me. That’s what I thought.”

Ferrara said she didn’t recall hearing the sound of fire alarms after the blaze broke out, telling reporters that she felt the building was unsafe.

When asked, “The building, was it safe, generally?” Ferrara answered, “I don’t think so. I don’t think it was.”

“There were parts of the floors that weren’t. They felt like they could cave in if you walked on them,” Ferrara explained.

Ferrara also said the elevator in the building had been in disrepair for about eight months, noting service had just recently been restored.

“The people upstairs could never have gotten out if there was a fire,” Ferrara said.

Ferrara, fighting back tears, said she lost two of her close friends, describing one friend as a “pure angel” and the other as a “dear Christian woman.”

Albert Almanza, who was also rescued from the fire, said he couldn’t see anything through the thickness of the smoke.

“The officer grabbed my hand. I couldn’t even see that,” Almanza told reporters. “I was just trying to do my best not to fall.”

Almanza said he never thought something like this fire would happen, but that he’s thankful first responders were able to salvage his daughter’s ashes from his room.

“Thank you so very, very much,” was Almanza‘s message to first responders.

Almanza said he knew at least four people who passed away in the fire.

Like Ferrara, Almanza also noted that he didn’t hear any fire alarms sounding.

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Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said a total of nine people died and that 30 others had to be hospitalized. He called the fire an “unspeakable tragedy.”

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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