Fire at Massachusetts assisted living facility claims a 10th life
By The New York Times, July 20, 2025A 10th person has died after a fire engulfed an assisted living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, last Sunday, according to officials.
The victim, Brenda Cropper, 66, died at a hospital Friday after being in critical condition all week, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III said in a statement Saturday.
The district attorney’s office mistakenly announced Cropper’s death prematurely Thursday, blaming the error on a “miscommunication” with a medical agency.
The fire erupted last Sunday night at Gabriel House, which housed about 70 residents. More than two dozen people were injured.
The cause of the fire, which was the deadliest in Massachusetts in 40 years, remains under investigation.
The union representing Fall River firefighters, the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1314, said there could have been more firefighters at the scene initially if city leaders had heeded its warnings that the department needed to bolster its ranks.
Capt. Frank O’Regan, a member of the union, said the department had warned of inadequate staffing for decades and that additional firefighters would have saved more lives at Gabriel House.
Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan deflected the criticism, saying that the department’s most recent staffing request had been fully met and that how it uses its firefighters to cover shifts is up to department leaders.
Coogan said the building had sprinklers and working fire alarms, but that emergency workers had not yet been able to check whether all the warning systems had been working properly at the time of the fire.