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

At a press conference Tuesday, July 15, outside FRFD headquarters, Bacon said the city has typically relied on overtime for coverage in the event of a crisis -- but in an event like the Gabriel House “you can never have enough staff,” and that he is primarily focused on the lives that were saved.

You could have had 100 firefighters show up on that scene and it wouldn’t have been enough,” Jeffrey Bacon said at a news briefing outside the fire department’s headquarters Tuesday.

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, according to

A fire at Gabriel House assisted living in Fall River, Massachusetts, resulted in multiple deaths and injuries. City is responding and investigating.

Residents of the Gabriel House in Fall River, Massachusetts described the terrifying moments that smoke filled the assisted living home​ and they had to find a way to escape.

Residents of the home have called the fire "not just a tragedy, it’s a travesty" and have pointed to numerous safety problems at Gabriel House, including staffing, concerns about elevators, lack of fire safety drills and residents having items that could cause fires.

An "extensive investigation" is underway in Fall River after a fire at an assisted living center claimed the lives of nine people.

The names of seven of the nine victims who died in a fire at an assisted living home in Fall River, Massachusetts,​ have been released by the Bristol County District Attorney.

The Gabriel House assisted living facility did not perform fire drills or train workers in evacuation procedures and was also understaffed and poorly maintained, according to a current and former employee interviewed in the aftermath of the fatal fire there that killed nine residents.