7 more residents sue Gabriel House as lawsuits pile up after deadly fire
The Fall River assisted living facility, where the state’s most lethal fire in more than 40 years occurred last month, has been targeted by at least six lawsuits to date .
The newest lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Bristol County Superior Court by seven former Gabriel House residents who survived the July 13 fire at 261 Oliver Street and were displaced as a result: Albert Almanza, Larry Ashworth, Muriel Boyce, Shirley Cambra, Lorraine Ferrera, Caroline Johnson and James Vicery.
In their complaint, the former residents detail being “trapped” in their units as hallways filled with “thick black smoke” that prevented them from evacuating the building.
They claim “egregious violations” by Gabriel House, its owner Dennis Etzkorn, his wife Karen Etzkorn and Fire Systems Inc., saying the fatal fire that killed 10 people “exposed widespread failures of building equipment and systems.”
Those failures, the complaint reads, are “a direct violation of state safety regulations.”
“The property was not properly or reasonably managed, staffed, maintained or supervised, residency rules were not enforced — particularly as to smoking on the premises, staff was inadequately trained and emergency response procedures were non-existent or inadequate,” the plaintiffs state in their complaint.
Claims made by residents and staff in the aftermath of the fire and corroborated by city and state records, as previously reported by MassLive , include prolonged elevator outages (as long as eight months), cockroaches, rodents, sparse emergency planning and routine cigarette smoking indoors around oxygen tanks.
Like the lawsuits before it, this week’s suit blames Fire Systems Inc., a private contractor based out of Dartmouth, for inspecting and maintaining fire safety equipment at Gabriel House that ultimately “failed.” The plaintiffs claim the sprinkler system and fire panel were “improperly installed and maintained, and therefore (were) not operational at the time of the subject fire.”
Etzkorn has said the building’s sprinkler system was inspected just five days prior to the fire and found to be in working order. He has given all relevant records to the investigating authorities, he said.
Body cam footage released by the city of Fall River has shown at least some sprinklers were working in parts of the building that night, but several residents — through their lawsuits and in interviews with MassLive — claim they weren’t working uniformly throughout.
Officials have said the deadly blaze was caused by either the failure of an oxygen purifier or improper disposal of smoking materials . While the cause is undetermined, it is undisputed that the oxygen in the building contributed to the scale of the tragedy.
Fire officials have not disclosed the exact unit where the fire broke out, but said it started in a second-story room in the east wing of the U-shaped building.
The ongoing death investigation headed by the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office includes an assessment of the property’s compliance with fire and life safety codes.
The latest 11-count lawsuit demands a jury trial.
Reporter Charlie McKenna contributed to this story.
Deadly Gabriel House fire
Read the original article on MassLive .
