Elderly residents – some in wheelchairs and some dependent on oxygen tanks – were blinded by deadly smoke as they tried to escape an assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, which caught fire Sunday evening.

Gabriel House had seen better days. The 100-unit assisted-living facility that burned Sunday night, killing nine people so far, opened in 1999.

River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon deferred all questions about the fire investigation to the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services.

Following a deadly fire at the Gabriel House assisted living home in Fall River, a state lawmaker is pushing for hearings to examine the incident and the regulatory requirements for assisted living centers in Massachusetts.

Around 50 firefighters, including dozens who were off-duty, rushed to Gabriel House in downtown Fall River just before 10 p.m. local time Sunday.

Shirley Chambra was outside smoking a cigarette when she saw sparks and then flames at her home: the Gabriel House assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts.

A Massachusetts assisted-living center where nine residents died in a fire was cited for failing to immediately report more than two dozen health and safety incidents.

An assisted-living center in Massachusetts, where nine people died in a fire on Sunday, was cited for failing to report within 24 hours more than two dozen safety incidents years before the tragedy, according to the state’s compliance report of the facility.

Firefighters were called to the Gabriel House assisted living facility in Fall River at about 9:50pm on Sunday

Flames roared through an assisted-living facility in Massachusetts, killing nine people and trapping residents inside, including some who leaned out of windows and screamed for help.