‘I am going to die in here’: At least 9 dead, 30 hospitalized as fire torches assisted living facility

At least nine deaths were confirmed late Sunday night in a fire that broke out at an assisted living center in Massachusetts, according to reports from state officials.

Fox News quoted a statement from the state Department of Fire Services that detailed the tragedy that happened at the Gabriel House assisted living center in Fall River.

Firefighters were summoned there about 10 p.m. Sunday and immediately encountered residents hanging out of windows screaming for help.

When firefighters arrived flames and heavy smoke already had engulfed the front of the building.

At least 9 dead, 30 hospitalized after fire tears through Fall River assisted living facility: ‘Unfathomable tragedy’ https://t.co/0vXYnXWGiT pic.twitter.com/kvm4PV0eRb

— New York Post (@nypost) July 14, 2025

Breaking:9 people died in Fall River fire at Gabriel House on Oliver St last night…30 people transported with one in critical condition…Gabriel House is assisted living facility #7News pic.twitter.com/0LGDx7sAeX

— Steve Cooper (@scooperon7) July 14, 2025

State Fire Marshal Jon Davine’s office confirmed to reporters about 70 people were sleeping at the center when the fire broke out, but a cause had not been revealed.

#BREAKING: A mass casualty incident has been declared after multiple people have been killed and injured in a massive fire at a nursing home assisted living facility
⁰#FallRiver | #Massachusetts
⁰At this time Emergency services have declared a mass-casualty incident in Fall… pic.twitter.com/N37QDO41hx

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) July 14, 2025

The Daily Mail said relatives reported receiving frantic phone calls from senior residents at the center, on the Massachusetts side of the border just outside of Providence, Rhode Island.

The report said a woman identified only as Melanie said, of her father, “He was on the floor talking to me, and I am crying telling him, ‘Break the window. Try to break it,’ Because he is so weak, and he couldn’t break it, and I am like, ‘Where are you?’ and he was like. ‘I am in the bathroom’. ‘I said open your bathroom window, and he said, ‘It is open, but they are not hearing me. They are not hearing me, Melanie. I am going to die in here’.”

More than two dozen people also were taken to a local hospital, said Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon.

Bacon told a press conference early Monday, after the flames largely were out, “Our heart goes out to all of the families of the people that were injured here, and the people that lost their lives here.”

Leo Johnson, 45, of Fall River, told The Boston Globe he found his mother, who lived on the top floor, outside, wet because the sprinklers were going off.

Fire Chaplain Michael Racine said, “In all my years of being a Fire Chaplain tonight was the worst night of experiencing such loss of life, multiple fatalities in Fall River.”