FALL RIVER, MASS. (WHDH) - The deadly fire at Gabriel House in July 2025 changed lives forever.
One year after the tragedy, Fall River firefighters said the fire at the assisted living facility changed how they do their jobs.
Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said he realized immediately that the July 13 fire would have an impact.
“I realized listening to the radio on my way in that it was Gabriel House, and at that moment I knew it was going to be something that was going to change the department forever,” Bacon remembered.
7 Investigates obtained hours of body camera video that gives an inside look at the response that night.
Firefighters are seen rushing from one rescue to the next as flames and smoke fill the assisted-living facility.
Ladders go up. Residents come down; many of them are carried down by first responders.
“Oh man, are you sure about this? I’m not sure I can hang on to you,” one resident is heard saying before a firefighter carries him on his back down a set of stairs.
The scale of the fire and the number of rescues visibly exhaust crews.
At one point, a fire official is heard telling a police officer, “We got nobody. You’re going to have to search these.”
Bacon said the frantic images from that night confirm what Fall River firefighters had been fearing for a long time.
“For years, we talked about how we needed more staffing, we needed more manpower. We were woefully understaffed, and it is frustrating to see that it takes something like this,” Bacon said.
The Fall River Fire Department’s own investigation into what happened that night reached a similar conclusion.
According to the report, all 33 firefighters on duty were at Gabriel House within 15 minutes of the alarm sounding. However, the report found that response was well below national staffing guidelines, which “call for 42 firefighters within the first 10 minutes” at facilities like Gabriel House.
“I know what manpower can do on a fire scene,” Bacon said.
“You can’t tell how many people would have been saved,” said Fall River Firefighter Lt. Bruce Alves.
More help eventually arrived at the scene of the fire. Some off-duty firefighters were called to the scene and Fall River police officers also responded. The officers ran in without breathing equipment or protective gear to search for people trapped inside.
As firefighters were stretched to their max, they were also forced to make a difficult decision: breaking away from their partners to cover more ground and hopefully save more lives.
“We break rules when we have to, and it was certainly justified that night,” Bacon said of the decision.
Body camera footage also showed water puddled on the floor inside the building.
The sprinkler system is still under scrutiny one year later.
“Instantly, I knew something was up with the sprinklers,” Bacon remembered after hearing about the initial fire conditions.
A lawsuit filed by fire survivors against the owners of Gabriel House and the sprinkler inspection company claims there were multiple recalled sprinkler heads in the building, and the “sprinkler system failed to activate at the fire origin site.”
The lawsuit said this is despite the sprinkler inspection company checking and approving the system just days before the fire.
We reached out to Gabriel House owner Dennis Etzkorn, and in a statement, he told 7-Investigates the sprinkler inspectors sent an email about the recall in 2024, but that “no concerns” were expressed during three sprinkler inspections in 2025.
Because of what happened at Gabriel House, Fall River fire officials are now pushing to change the State and National Fire Codes so that sprinkler inspectors will be required to look for recalled sprinkler heads.
“That alone will save a lot of lives because in 2002 the recall came back for 35 million that are spread throughout the world,” Bacon said. “We know there are more.”
The firefighters who responded that night said that for them, the memory of that night lives on and they hope the tragedy continues to lead to positive change.
“Ten people lost their lives that night, and that is what weighs on me and I think it will weigh on me for the rest of my life,” Alves said.
“I just hope going forward nobody forgets and we can continue making changes,” said Lt. Paul Machado, a Fall River firefighter.
Since last July, Bacon said they’ve hired 12 new firefighters and plan to add five more.
The fire department now also keeps a truck stocked with spare safety equipment so off-duty first responders can join rescue efforts more quickly.
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