Relatives say Massachusetts assisted-living blaze gutted a tough community

Gabriel House had seen better days, but for residents and their families it was the center of a caring community.

The 100-unit assisted-living facility that burned Sunday night, killing nine people so far, opened in 1999 in Fall River, Massachusetts. Some photos on its Facebook page show neat rooms but older-looking carpeting and furniture. However, the facility had been repeatedly cited for tardiness in reporting potential health and safety incidents, according to regulators' most recent review.

Displaced residents and relatives also have told of substandard conditions, but also say it was a place where people from difficult circumstances found each other.

Some say Gabriel House was emblematic of Fall River — a fiercely proud city despite a years-long downturn. The city of tight-knit neighborhoods has been shaped by immigrants who came to work in now-dwinded textile mills, including a large population of Portuguese descent.

Fall River rallies around Gabriel House

A memorial of candles and balloons that grew at the site Tuesday and Wednesday. People held a vigil there and attendees talked about the importance of community. Krista Cormier, a Fall River resident, said the fire has been “heavy on my heart all week."

“Anytime something happens people just come together just because of this,” Cormier said, beating on her heart. “This city is full of love and support.”

But there were notes of discord. Gabriel House owner Dennis Etzkorn has said he is cooperating with investigators but Mayor Paul Coogan said he should have been at the memorial and has criticized him for being hard to reach in the aftermath of the fire.

“To me, he should be down here every day,” Coogan said.

A long history of tragedy

Fall River has endured tragedy and controversy, from officials accusing Victorian spinster Lizzie Borden of killing her father and stepmother with an ax in 1892 to convicting wunderkind Mayor Jasiel Correira of fraud in 2021.

The Gabriel House assisted living facility opened on Olive Street nearly a century after the coastal city — nicknamed “Spindle City” — roared with roughly 100 textile mills and a population of 120,000 people. Most of those mills were silenced by the Great Depression, while the city declared bankruptcy in 1931.

These days, Fall River’s population is now about 95,000, Census figures show. The city’s median household income of nearly $53,000 is a little more than half the state’s median, while the 24% poverty rate is more than double that of Massachusetts state. The city is trying to revitalize its downtown and waterfront and while local and state officials are working to bring in more affordable housing.

Gabriel House was home to beloved family members

Her granddaughter didn’t like the assisted-living center, but 86-year-old Eleanor Willett wanted something that left her money to play the slots at a casino. She earned too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford a higher-priced assisted-living facility, Holly Mallowes told The Associated Press Tuesday.

“She said, ‘I don’t need much, but a roof over my head and someplace to put my sewing machine,’” Mallowes said.

A Massachusetts native, Willett spent more than 20 years as a secretary and even worked briefly as a cocktail waitress, her granddaughter said.

Her home was always a base for everyone in her family, Mallowes said.

“My mom worked a lot and Grammy’s was always a place we called home,” said Mallowes, 45. “We lived with her often. She was very strong. She outlived two husbands and raised five children. She was absolutely a joy.”

Kim Mackin, 71, was a violist who performed in Boston-area orchestras, according to her nephew, Austin Mackin.

She was described in a statement from family members as “gifted beyond words.”

“We will all miss Kimmy,” the statement read. “Beyond being exceptionally kind, few knew that she was a brilliant musician.”

Mackin received a full scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music and after graduating, toured the world as first chair viola.

Breonna Cestodio described her 78-year-old uncle, Richard Rochon, as “a very quiet guy,” yet a “great guy.”

“He kept to himself,” she told reporters. “He was a sharpshooter in the Army. He loved getting visits from all of his nieces and nephews.”

Rochon moved into Gabriel House about a year ago. Cestodio had little good to say about the facility, remarking that it always seemed hot inside the building.

A history of hard times and fires

The city motto, “We’ll try,” dates to the Great Fire of 1843, which destroyed much of the center of town. Other large fires altered the city forever in the 1920s and 1940s.

The Gabriel House fire is the latest disaster for the city to navigate, and it will, said Frank Sousa, director of the Saab Center for Portuguese Studies at University of Massachusetts Lowell.

“These are people who had tough lives, and in Fall River found new opportunities,” he said. “This ten years from now, 20 years from now will just be one of the many things that have happened in the city that have required resilience.”

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Associated Press writer Mark Scolforo contributed from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.