The Assisted Life Installation of Massachusetts that caught on Sunday night, leaving nine dead, was scheduled to undergo a process of reviewing and compliance at the end of this year.
“Gabriel House is prepared for recertification in November 2025 and is on the list of compliance reviews that this fall will be held,” said a spokesman for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services in a statement on Monday night.
An informed officer on the investigation into the cause of the mortal fire told ABC News that, as a preliminary matter, the fire does not seem to have been intentionally established. Most likely, said the source, seems to have been caused by some kind of electrical or mechanical problem.
The flowers rest near an entrance to the assisted life installation of the Gabriel house, on Monday, July 14, 2025, after a fire that began on Sunday night and resulted in multiple deaths, in Fall River, Mass.
Steven Senne/AP
Thirty people, including five firefighters, were taken to local hospitals after the mortal fire, according to officials.
Fall River installation is classified as an assisted residence, not as an elderly home. This distinction means that complexes such as Gabriel House are subject to different regulatory inspection, certification and process than Massachusetts elderly homes.
The website and the website of the Massachusetts Division of the Division of Medical Care says that the division performs unnoticed inspections of elderly households every nine to 15 months.
Firefighters see the scene in the assisted life installation of Gabriel House, after a deadly fire broke out at Fall River, Massachusetts, on July 14, 2025.
Colin Furze/USA Today Network through Reuters
Since Gabriel House is considered an assisted residence, his last visit to the site by representatives of the Massachusetts Executive Aging Office And independence occurred in October 2023.
The office said at that time, he found areas where Gabriel House “did not comply with state regulations”, and the installation had to present a correction plan.
A compliance review report sent to the executive director of Gabriel House, Dennis Etzkorn, indicated that alleged violations were mainly related to missing documentation.
An researcher takes the measures on Monday, July 14, 2025, near an entrance to the assisted life installation of the Gabriel House after a fire that began Sunday night, in Fall River, Mass.
Steven Senne/AP
A part of the report indicated that state representatives reviewed a 90 -day correspondence record “required to communicate the information necessary to maintain the continuity of care for all residents.”
“The residence did not constantly documented for each 24 -hour period in the correspondence register,” the document said. “The residence did not use the correspondence record to communicate all the significant or pertinent information necessary to maintain the continuity of care for all residents.”
Fall River firefighters, Jeffrey Bacon, on the right, speaks with another official after a fire at the life center assisted by the Gabriel house in Fall River, Massachusetts, Monday, July 14, 2025.
Michael Casey/AP
Another part of the report said: “The documentation of the residence that monitors the effectiveness of its evidence was missing the reported fall prevention program for all calendar years” and that the personnel records of three employees “were missing documentation of a physical examination prior to employment.”
Gabriel House’s correction plan indicated that changes were made and received a certificate in December 2023. The certificate allowed Gabriel House to operate until November of this year.
