NEED TO KNOW
A tenth person has died after a massive fire at a Massachusetts assisted living facility on Sunday, July 13The victim has been identified by the local district attorney’s office as 66-year-old Brenda CropperCropper was hospitalized in critical condition for three days before she died on Wednesday, July 16
A tenth person has died after a fire tore through a Massachusetts assisted living facility.
Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn announced the death of 66-year-old Brenda Cropper on Thursday, July 17, according to CBS affiliate WBZ-TV, MassLive and NPR station WBUR.
Cropper was hospitalized in critical condition for days after the blaze at the Gabriel House Assisted Living Facility in Fall River, which killed nine others on Sunday, July 13.
Cropper died on Wednesday, July 16, MassLive and WBUR reported. The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Police previously said crews responded to the fire on Oliver Street around 9:40 p.m. local time on Sunday. Several people were pronounced dead at the scene, while multiple other individuals were injured.
The aftermath of a fatal fire at the Gabriel House Assisted Living Facility on July 14, 2025.
Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe via Getty
Eight of the victims killed in the blaze have been identified. Among them are Rui Albernaz, 64; Ronald Codega, 61; Margaret Duddy, 69; Robert King, 78; Kim Mackin, 71; Richard Rochon, 78; and Eleanor Willett, 86, according to NBC News and ABC affiliate WCVB.
Joseph Wilansky, 77, was also killed, according to the Fall River Herald Newsciting the district attorney’s office.
“This is an unfathomable tragedy for the families involved and the Fall River community,” Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said in a press release following the blaze.
Violations were previously found at the Gabriel House. It was last inspected by the state in October 2023, and by the city in October 2024.
Among the violations were 26 instances where specific emergency situations were not reported to the state within 24 hours, as required by law, according to CBS affiliate WPRI-TV. Additionally, some medications were reportedly left loose in storage areas within the facility, while others were partially left open.
Gabriel House previously submitted a plan of correction to the state, and later received a certificate to operate until December 2025, per WPRI-TV and WBZ-TV.
Heavy damage is seen, including shoes and debris, following the multiple fatal fire at the Gabriel House assisted living facility..
Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto via AP
Debbie Johnson, a certified nursing assistant for Gabriel House, told WBZ-TV after the fire that the facility was “horrible.”
“They had mice. They had cockroaches, infested with cockroaches, bed bugs. It was dirty, very dirty,” Johnson claimed. “The elevator has been broken for the last four years, off and on forever and there’s people stuck in their rooms, have to have their food brought to them.”
Now, Fall River mayor Paul Coogan has claimed the owner of the facility is no longer cooperating with his office.
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“He’s just starting to get me a tad angry now because we needed his help on a few things and he’s not answering his phone,” Coogan said on Tuesday, July 15.
The mayor later added, “I want him to know that these are his residents, and he might as well push them on the sidewalk and say, ‘have a nice day,’ if he’s not going to follow up.”
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