The Massachusetts assisted-living facility where a fatal fire killed nine people was caring for dozens of aging residents reliant on wheelchairs and oxygen tanks, but it lacked the safety measures and most of the staffing requirements that are commonplace in nursing homes.

Gabriel House was an assisted living residence, according to the state of Massachusetts. Here's how the state defines that

Elderly residents – some in wheelchairs and some dependent on oxygen tanks – were blinded by deadly smoke as they tried to escape an assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, which caught fire Sunday evening.

The 100-unit assisted-living facility that burned Sunday night, killing nine people so far, opened in 1999 in Fall River, Massachusetts. Some photos on its Facebook page show neat rooms but older-looking carpeting and furniture, and before the fire state inspectors had hit the facility with health and safety citations.

"I need bodies and ladders," a Fall River firefighter also requested during the frantic search and rescue operation.

A former employee said she never saw the staff perform fire drills. The local fire chief pushed back at claims that dispatching more firefighters would’ve saved more lives.

Exterminators were called to the Gabriel House multiple times since 2014 to get rid of bedbugs, mice and other pests at the assisted living facility, according to records obtained by Target 12.

Por MICHAEL CASEY, KIMBERLEE KRUESI, PATRICK WHITTLE y HOLLY RAMERFALL RIVER, Massachusetts, EE.UU. (AP) — Un incendio en una casa para ancianos en Massachusetts cobró la vida de nueve