(FALL RIVER, Mass.) — 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, according to her nephew, Ken Pelletier.
“I’m sure she felt so helpless being outside,” Pelletier told ABC News. “She’s lived there long enough she knows probably everybody there.”
Nine people were killed and dozens were hurt after a five-alarm fire tore through the assisted-living facility on Sunday night.
Responders found multiple people “hanging out of the windows, screaming and begging to be rescued,” Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said.
About 70 people lived in the building, many of whom are immobile and have oxygen tanks, officials said.
Without responders’ quick actions, “we would’ve seen an even far — an unimaginable loss of life here, given the vulnerability of this population,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said.
When Pelletier saw the news of the fire, he said he rushed over to the facility and found his aunt on a bus with other residents, some of whom were covered in soot.
“She looked like she was in shock,” he said. “She was scared.”
“I’m sure when she left last night to go have a cigarette, she only left with what she has on her back, and, you know, her walker,” he added.
Pelletier said it was a relief to see Chambra alive.
“You have all those thoughts and things running through your mind, you know, worst case scenario,” he said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. The Bristol County District Attorney’s office said it “does not appear to be suspicious.”
The DA’s office identified the residents killed as: 64-year-old Rui Albernaz, 61-year-old Ronald Codega, 69-year-old Margaret Duddy, 78-year-old Robert King, 71-year-old Kim Mackin, 78-year-old Richard Rochon, 86-year-old Eleanor Willett. The names of the other two victims — a 70-year-old woman and a 77-year-old man — have not been released.
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