The Massachusetts assisted-living facility where a fatal fire killed nine people was caring for dozens of aging residents reliant on wheelchairs and oxygen tanks, but it lacked the safety measures and most of the staffing requirements that are commonplace in nursing homes.

A former employee said she never saw the staff perform fire drills. The local fire chief pushed back at claims that dispatching more firefighters would’ve saved more lives.

"I need bodies and ladders," a Fall River firefighter also requested during the frantic search and rescue operation.

By COREY WILLIAMS Gabriel House had seen better days. The 100-unit assisted-living facility that burned Sunday night, killing nine people so far, opened in 1999 in Fall River, Massachusetts. Some

Elderly residents – some in wheelchairs and some dependent on oxygen tanks – were blinded by deadly smoke as they tried to escape an assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, which caught fire Sunday evening.

Por MICHAEL CASEY, KIMBERLEE KRUESI, PATRICK WHITTLE y HOLLY RAMERFALL RIVER, Massachusetts, EE.UU. (AP) — Un incendio en una casa para ancianos en Massachusetts cobró la vida de nueve

Flames roared through an assisted-living residence in Massachusetts, killing nine people, injuring 30 others and trapping residents inside.

It’s important to note that these allegations did not involve the Gabriel House assisted living facility and were unrelated to safety concerns.