Fall River residents recount fatal fire at assisted living facility

UPDATE: Victims ID’d from deadly fire at Fall River assisted living facility

Thick, choking smoke trapped Lorraine Ferrera in her room at Fall River’s Gabriel House on Sunday night, cutting off her only escape route in the assisted living facility.

“I opened my door and it was all black. It was all smoke in the hallway, and I was breathing it in … It was hot and it burnt me,” Ferrera recalled. The 71-year-old woman sat on a large rock in a field across from the Timao House on Monday morning.

She was one of several survivors brought there after a major fire tore through the assisted living facility around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, killing nine people and injuring 30 out of the nearly 70 who lived there.

Ferrera, who lived on the second floor at the Gabriel House since October, said she first realized there was something wrong around 9:45 p.m. As smoke poured in from the hallway, she feared for her life and retreated to the bathroom — “and that was full of smoke now, too,” she said.

“I just opened the window and I yelled, ‘Help, help, help.’”

Suddenly, a firefighter appeared before her at the window — but Ferrera didn’t think she’d have the mobility to get down.

“I told him I couldn’t get out. I was going to say, ‘just leave me.’ But he broke the window and got me out,” she said. The 72-year-old blacked out on the way down, she said, and when she opened her eyes, she was on the ground across the street.

The Gabriel House was completely ablaze in front of her.

“It was just a nightmare. All the ambulances, fire trucks, people screaming. It was crazy,” she remembered through tears.

On the third floor, Judith Croteau, 82, was also in her bathroom when a firefighter broke through the window to save her. She walked down the ladder herself with a firefighter holding her waist, and she credited her life to him.

“I wish I knew who he was,” she said.

And in the basement, a firefighter was also able to save 58-year-old Kerry Lecke, who’d only lived there for the past two months as she recovered from a recent surgery on her hip.

“I’m lucky I’m alive,” Lecke said. “[Once we were out] I turned around and looked across the street to the building and the entire second floor was ablaze.”

“It was nothing but orange. It was bad,” she recalled.

But not everyone was as lucky. With nine people killed and 30 hospitalized with injuries — some with burns and many others with smoke inhalation — the women said it “took a long time” for the firefighters to rescue everyone from the building.

“We all were like one big family,” Fererra said.

“I’m gonna miss them dearly. I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”

The fire left smoke streaks on the front porch of the Gabriel House, with windows blown open from residents’ escapes. The smell of smoke still hung thickly in the air well into Monday afternoon.

The residents are worried about what may come next, especially as they lost belongings like debit cards, cash, clothes and even their dentures.

While Gov. Maura Healey, who visited the scene on Monday morning, said efforts are ongoing to make local housing accommodations for the displaced residents, many are fearful they have nowhere else to go.

“I just moved in there two and a half months ago — I just got a roof over my head and it burnt,” Lecke said, crying. “I have no idea what’s next.”

Ferrera is also uncertain of her future and said she’s “not quite sure where I’m going.”

Outside the scorched remains of the Gabriel House, a bouquet of pink roses rested gently near the steps.

Nearby, nine yellow flowers were stuck in the soil — one for each life lost.

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