When flames broke out at Steven Oldrid’s Fall River assisted living facility last week, he followed the instructions posted on the back of his studio apartment door.
“Close it and stay in your room,” his attorney, Robin Gouveia, paraphrased.
As the five-alarm fire spread through Gabriel House on the evening of July 13, Oldrid — who uses a power chair and lived on the third floor of the building — suffered smoke inhalation and respiratory distress. He ultimately went unconscious on the floor of his room.
Rescued by first responders and still hospitalized more than a week later with complications, Oldrid, who is 69, doesn’t know where he’s going to live once discharged, Gouveia said.
Now, Oldrid is suing his former residence of three years and its management after the fire killed 10 people and injured dozens of others.
His lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Bristol County Superior Court, accuses Gabriel Care, Inc. of negligence. It also seeks damages to cover Oldrid’s additional expenses for hospitalization and treatment.
“The subject facility was not properly managed, staffed, maintained, or supervised; residency rules were not enforced and emergency response procedures were not in place,” the lawsuit reads.
When asked about the guidance for residents to remain in their rooms, Gouveia said, “It’s horrible if you don’t have enough staff to go get your residents. And many of these residents have mobility issues, so certainly if you’re going to have that kind of requirement, you need to have enough staff to get them.”
According to the National Fire Protection Association’s nursing home recommendations, closing doors to patient rooms is advised as a “quick response” when a fire breaks out — that should be followed by a coordinated evacuation.
Many Gabriel House residents have said two staff members were on shift the night of July 13 to care for 70-plus people, and that no one came to get them from their rooms.
- Read more: Roaches, missed care and no way out: What life was like at Gabriel House before fire killed 10
Gouveia, of personal injury law firm d’Oliveira & Associates, said prior to the fire — and unrelated, but indicative of facility conditions — the building’s elevator was broken for nine months. Several current and former residents have corroborated that, saying that third-floor residents with mobility challenges were essentially confined there.
“He was in the building for nine months,” Gouveia said of Oldrid. “He couldn’t leave. He said, ‘I didn’t leave the building for nine months.’”
The lawsuit argues there weren’t enough staff to care for the residents living at the Gabriel House, Gouveia said, and that its evacuation plan was ineffective.
Oldrid also told Gouveia that while smoking in the building was prohibited, “everybody smoked” inside and nothing was done about it.
Smoking may have ultimately been related to the fire. On Tuesday, State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine announced the flames originated in a second-floor resident’s room, and was caused by either an electrical or mechanical failure of an oxygen concentrator or the improper use or disposal of smoking materials.
“Numerous smoking materials” were found in the room of origin, according to fire officials.
Since investigators couldn’t pinpoint one specific cause, it will remain undetermined, Davine said.
Gouveia expects there will be more lawsuits filed by injured residents in the coming days and weeks.
“I think we have a very strong case against the company and the management and the owner of that building for sure,” she said.
A spokesman for Gabriel House, which is owned by Dennis D. Etzkorn, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday about the lawsuit.
But in a statement released Monday, the spokesperson, on behalf of Etzkorn, said, “There are no words to adequately convey the depths of our grief and shock over the devastating events of July 13 at the Gabriel House. Indeed, to call what occurred that night a tragedy is an understatement. Our hearts are broken for the victims and their families; their losses will never be forgotten.”
In the same statement, Gabriel House ownership claimed the building’s sprinkler system worked five days prior to the fire.
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