Fire at Massachusetts Assisted Living Facility Claims a 10th Life
The victim, Brenda Cropper, 66, died at a hospital on Friday after being in critical condition all week, the Bristol County district attorney, Thomas M. Quinn III, said in a statement on Saturday.
The district attorney's office mistakenly announced Ms. Cropper's death prematurely on Thursday, blaming the error on a 'miscommunication' with a medical agency.
The fire erupted on Sunday night at the assisted living facility, Gabriel House, which housed about 70 residents. More than two dozen people were injured.
The cause of the fire, which was the deadliest in Massachusetts in 40 years, remains under investigation.
The union representing Fall River firefighters, the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1314, said there could have been more firefighters at the scene initially if city leaders had heeded its warnings that the department needed to bolster its ranks.
Capt. Frank O'Regan, a member of the union, said the department had warned of inadequate staffing for decades and that additional firefighters would have saved more lives at Gabriel House.
Mayor Paul Coogan of Fall River deflected the criticism, saying that the department's most recent staffing request had been fully met and that how it uses its firefighters to cover shifts is up to department leaders.
The mayor said the building had sprinklers and working fire alarms, but that emergency workers had not yet been able to check whether all the warning systems had been working properly at the time of the fire.
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