A year later, Gabriel House still haunts Fall River

State Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office is investigating the fire but remains silent on whether Dennis Etzkorn, Gabriel House’s owner, will face criminal charges. The final report on the cause of the fire has yet to be publicly shared. Etzkorn faces a raft of lawsuits but had no liability insurance, prompting aggrieved families and former residents to plan a new suit that names other defendants.

The July 13, 2025, fire revealed the state’s tolerance for poorly run assisted living residences, said state Senator Mark Montigny, who pushed for state regulators to prioritize new fire safety regulations after the blaze. The state has issued a suite of reforms aimed at preventing a similar tragedy, but officials acknowledge more should be done.

“This is just a first step in the process,” he said in a statement.

Survivors, meanwhile, remain haunted by memories of the fire’s victims.

Donna Murphy spent many late nights at Gabriel House hanging outside with residents she considered close friends. The night of the fire she happened to stay with her granddaughter, Cheyenne Rushlow.

The 73-year-old can’t get past the idea that her friends would still be alive if she had been there, her family said. Stuck in a nursing home, Murphy is receiving treatment for depression that hasn’t resolved her angst.

“That survivor’s guilt, I don’t think medication will take that away from her,” Rushlow said.

Within a few weeks of the blaze fire, state and local authorities released a preliminary report concluding the fire started accidentally in a resident’s second-floor room, where investigators found a medical oxygen device and smoking materials. Investigators weren’t able to definitively conclude what sparked the blaze.

The Department of Fire Services has produced a final report and shared it with prosecutors who continue to probe the tragedy, according to a spokesperson. The results will not be publicly available until the investigation ends.

The AG’s office said it cannot comment “on the ongoing investigation.”

After the fire, statements from former residents and workers suggested the home’s operators could have done more to protect residents. Several people noted emergency preparations were virtually nil and there weren’t enough overnight workers to help people evacuate. Gabriel House’s regulatory record included a suspension in 2016. Residents had previously reported broken elevators, pest infestations, theft, and medication mismanagement.

The operators of Gabriel House now face a dozen lawsuits in state court, including litigation raising questions about whether the sprinkler system worked properly. Deadlines for both sides to turn over evidence stretch deep into 2027, according to records.

The legal fight is complicated by the fact that the state doesn’t require, and Etzkorn didn’t have, liability insurance. Now plaintiffs are scrambling, turning their attention to the money coming to him through a $5 million property insurance payout. The bank has already claimed $1 million, lawyers said.

The remaining $4 million is “nowhere near enough” to go around, said Steven Sabra, an attorney representing the families of two victims as well as three of the 30 injured residents and one of the 50 people displaced. A new complaint could expand the number of defendants to include the fire inspection company or manufacturers of fire-suppressant systems, Sabra said.

Meanwhile, Etzkorn is legally enjoined from selling the property, which means it will likely continue to haunt the neighborhood.

That bothers some neighbors.

“It’s time to build something new,” said Henry Harrison, who lives nearby and remembered seeing smoke billowing from the residence a year ago, and rushing to find police. “Ten people died there.”

In a statement issued last week through a spokesperson, Etzkorn acknowledged cooperating with investigators and noted he had taken steps to protect Gabriel House’s residents, including two sprinkler system inspections, a building inspection, and six fire drills all within a year of the fire.

“Our residents were more than tenants — they were our neighbors, our friends, and part of our unique Gabriel House family,” said the spokesperson, George K. Regan Jr., in the statement.

Former residents shared mixed feelings about the facility. Bobby LePage, 66, recalled watching the fire spread through the building from his window. He got out unscathed, and said his new home, River Falls Senior Living, another Fall River assisted living home, is safer, better maintained, and has better food.

“It’s a totally different vibe here,” LePage said. “I gained 22 pounds. I never ate at the Gabriel House.”

Following the fire, state officials moved to tighten regulations over assisted living facilities. The homes are increasingly popular among Massachusetts seniors as an alternative to nursing homes, which give residents much less freedom and more medical care. Nursing homes are heavily regulated by state and federal authorities. Assisted living residences were regulated more like apartment buildings, even as the medical needs and physical limitations of many of their residents grew more acute.

In 2024, months before the fire, John Ford, director of the elder law project at the Northeast Justice Center in Lynn, described the industry as “the Wild West.”

“They were getting away with murder, and what could a resident do, a consumer do?” said Ford. “It’s not the Wild West anymore.”

The Attorney General’s Office established regulations defining predatory or deceptive business practices that go into effect July 17. They open residences up to civil action from the state if they aren’t transparent about costs and fees or mislead residents.

A different set of regulations from the Executive Office of Aging and Independence scheduled to go into effect July 31 address quality control and safety, including fire safety.

Those regulations responded directly to issues raised after the fire. The rules set requirements for fire drills and evacuation plans that take into account the physical and cognitive capacity of every resident. Homes must have that information quickly available for emergency responders. The rules also set standards for the safe use, storage, and transportation of medical oxygen.

The industry is already adapting to the pending regulations, said Brian Doherty, president of the Massachusetts Assisted Living Association, an industry trade group.

“Providers are reviewing their residency agreements and disclosures to review if they need to make changes to comply,” he said.

Sabra was dismayed, though, that the new regulations don’t address the lack of liability insurance.

“We hope that the spotlight that has been shown on this tragedy will be an impetus for change,” he said.

Advocates for seniors and the disabled have lauded the regulations but raised questions about whether the state’s office on aging has the staff to consistently police assisted living residences.

Robin Lipson, the state’s secretary of the Office of Aging and Independence, said she has made hires since the fire and spent money to ensure comprehensive data about assisted living homes will be available online. Among the new rules was a requirement to make public documents related to enforcement actions. The governor’s recently signed budget also included $500,000 more for the office on aging.

Lipson has noted that Gabriel House was among almost a dozen homes statewide that relied heavily on public funding to support its operation. Most residents pay out-of-pocket for assisted living facilities, but more than 75 percent of Gabriel House residents were Medicaid recipients. Public funds paid for living expenses for many of them. Lipson said at the time that these “affordable” homes may require a different regulatory model. A proposed task force may address the question.

Kathleen Lynch Moncata, an elder law attorney who played a role in crafting the new rules, has hope that assisted living residences, which house 17,000 people statewide, will be safer and provide better services, but she mourned that death and destruction preceded meaningful change.

“Unfortunately, it’s a bittersweet anniversary,” she said.

On Friday, LePage and another former Gabriel House resident, Eugene Rodriguez, 67, smoked at a picnic table in River Falls’ courtyard.

“Nobody’s gonna harm you here,” said Rodriguez, who also relocated there.

They don’t talk much with other fire survivors, even those living in River Falls. More present, in some ways, are the people who didn’t get out alive.

“My life is better now,” LePage said. “I feel kind of a guilt trip, like people had to die for me to move on.”

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Jason Laughlin can be reached at jason.laughlin@globe.com. Follow him @jasmlaughlin. Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter. Emily Spatz can be reached at emily.spatz@globe.com. Follow her on X @emilymspatz.