Two fires, two vastly different outcomes.
Rockland Fire Chief Scott Duffey isn’t comparing them apples to apples, but what went wrong at the Gabriel House assisted living facility in Fall River this summer went right in his town on Saturday night.
When a three-alarm fire started in the ceiling above a staff bathroom at Webster Park Rehabilitation and Healthcare on Nov. 29, the building’s sprinkler system successfully kept it at bay until firefighters arrived. Meanwhile, Webster Park’s staff had already begun evacuations of residents down two staircases on either end of the building.
By night’s end, all 102 residents of the nursing home had been evacuated, and there were no injuries. Duffey breathed a sigh of relief, particularly after 10 people tragically lost their lives in the July 13 fire at Gabriel House, a facility housing a similar vulnerable population with mobility challenges.
- Read more: Fire safety reforms are hard to enact. Will anything be different after Gabriel House deaths?
Duffey called Saturday night’s response in Rockland “a successful operation,” crediting his department, their mutual aid partners and the Webster Park facility.
An image he was struck by that night was a male staff member carrying a resident down a staircase over his shoulder — an average person doing a fireman’s job.
What happened at Gabriel House
Over the summer, when a five-alarm blaze broke out at the Gabriel House assisted living facility on a Sunday evening, just two employees were on shift, responsible for more than 70 residents. Ring camera footage from inside the building showed the staff fleeing through the front door and calling 911, without assisting residents, as thick smoke began to spread through the hallways.
Current and former staff members told media outlets in the immediate aftermath that they hadn’t undergone a fire drill or emergency preparedness training in at least four years.
Making matters worse that night, sources with knowledge of the investigation have told MassLive, was a sprinkler system that didn’t activate in the second-floor room where the fire started. It’s since been learned that Gabriel House’s sprinkler heads had been recalled — more than two decades ago — but not replaced.
The sprinkler system was also missing a critical internal inspection that is mandated every five years, MassLive has previously reported.
Ten people died in the fire, and Fall River’s first responders courageously rescued 53. Neighbors playing volleyball nearby also responded, tearing down a metal fence blocking their way and placing ladders to access residents out of two third-floor bathroom windows.
In an interview this week, Duffey emphasized that the Fall River Fire Department’s actions that night were “heroic,” and he was not comparing the two departments. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities also operate under different regulations — assisted living is far less regulated, with no federal standards governing the industry.
But there were certainly parallels between the Rockland and Fall River fires, which had starkly different outcomes.
- Read more: Deadly Gabriel House fire exposes gaps in subsidized affordable assisted living business model
Webster Park, owned by New Jersey-based Marquis Health Services, underwent extensive renovations over the last few years, including upgraded sprinkler heads, Duffey said.
“That in itself was huge,” he said.
Firefighters don’t know how long the fire burned in the ceiling before it activated the nearby sprinkler heads, but limited combustibles in the immediate area worked in their favor — unlike the Gabriel House fire that started in a resident’s room full of furnishings and personal items.
Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze while working through a “very, very heavy smoke condition” on the third floor, Duffey said.
The fire chief couldn’t speculate on the outcome of the fire if the sprinklers hadn’t gone off, but “obviously it’s going to spread,” he said.
Fire safety inspections: Nursing homes vs. assisted living
Fire safety inspections are conducted quarterly at Webster Park and Rockland’s other nursing home facility, Duffey said, noting it’s been that way since he joined the department in 2004.
“Every three months, these inspections get done,” he said. “We’re all familiar with (Webster Park), and the deputy fire chief performs the inspections. We’ve never had an issue with them, and if we ever did find anything, they were quick to respond. They’ve been very good to work with.”
“You need to know the players before an incident starts,” Duffey added.
Webster Park’s fire alarm and suppression systems are “frequently serviced,” a spokesperson for the facility said, adding the successful response on Saturday night “reflects our ongoing commitment to planning, preparation and comprehensive staff training for a wide range of emergency situations.”
Gabriel House owner Dennis Etzkorn has previously said his sprinkler system was tested just five days before the fire and found to be in working order.
In Massachusetts, fire safety inspectors are inside nursing homes much more frequently than assisted living facilities.
Nursing homes — which are regulated by both the federal government and the state — are required to undergo quarterly fire inspections mandated by the Department of Public Health. In contrast, as an assisted living facility, Gabriel House was inspected annually by the Fall River Fire Department.
Assisted living is overseen and certified by the state’s Executive Office of Aging and Independence, while nursing homes are licensed health care facilities under the Department of Public Health.
Currently, in addition to annual fire department inspections, the Executive Office of Aging and Independence conducts compliance reviews at assisted living facilities “at least once every other year.” They can conduct additional reviews if complaints or concerns are raised.
The state requires assisted living facilities to “be compliant with fire safety codes” — via the annual fire department inspections and inclusion of fire safety certificates and permits in their operating plans in order to stay certified.
The state’s Assisted Living Residences Commission is currently working to increase industry oversight and strengthen fire safety and emergency preparedness in response to the Gabriel House fire. The commission is expected to release recommendations for regulatory and legislative changes at the end of the month.
After the July 13 fire in Fall River, Gov. Maura Healey mandated that all 272 assisted living facilities in the state submit emergency preparedness plans and fill out a fire safety assessment survey, including sprinkler systems, fire drills, evacuation protocols and maintenance of fire-rated doors and walls.
Under Healey’s direction, the Executive Office of Aging and Independence also strengthened coordination between state and local authorities for assisted living fire safety inspections through a new compliance verification form. Facilities will be required to secure an annual sign-off from their fire department that will be kept on file with the state, an effort to close systematic loopholes laid bare by the Gabriel House fire.
- Read more: Mass. officials launch effort to strengthen assisted living fire safety, inspection coordination
Fire departments have also been notified of which assisted living facilities in the state need additional emergency planning and support, which was self-reported through the survey.
In a report published in October, the Fall River Fire Department and Chief Jeffrey Bacon urged state officials to adopt the same life safety codes for assisted living facilities that nursing homes are subject to under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The same should apply for other occupancies that house vulnerable populations, such as group homes, boarding houses, day cares, sober homes and shelters, the report said.
Duffey “fully agrees with that.”
“It’s always bothered me,” he said, noting there are numerous halfway houses and residential rehab centers in Rockland. “It would be more work on our fire prevention team, but we need it.”
The Assisted Living Residences Commission is currently considering a draft recommendation that would change state compliance checklists for assisted living to incorporate standards that the Department of Public Health considers for nursing home life safety.
Bacon also recently rang the alarm to fire departments across the state that his staff had discovered more recalled sprinkler heads in other Fall River buildings, including a group home, boarding house and shelter.
“This discovery underscores the need for renewed attention, communication and possibly statewide guidance to ensure that vulnerable occupancies are identified and addressed before a fire incident puts lives at risk,” Bacon wrote to State Fire Marshal John Davine in September.
Bacon’s messaging prompted Duffey and his deputy fire chief to check for recalled sprinklers in Rockland’s two nursing homes. But more broadly, it’s a mounting challenge.
“With the amount of buildings, even for a small town like Rockland, it can be tough to track,” he said.
Webster Park is currently closed, and staff are “actively assessing the timeline for (residents’) safe return,” their spokesperson said.
