In Fall River, Our Promise To The Elderly Went Up In Smoke.
A deadly tragedy has exposed our failure to adequately regulate and monitor assisted living facilities
THE SMELL OF smoke should never be the last thing a person experiences in their own home. Yet for residents of the Gabriel House assisted living facility in Fall River, that nightmare became a reality last week.
The fire that tore through their building, killing 10 residents and injuring more than 20 others, wasn’t just a tragic accident; it was a catastrophic failure of a system that promised safety and delivered a death trap.
Gov. Healey’s emergency safety orders for all 273 assisted living residences in Massachusetts are a necessary first step. But let’s be clear: They are an admission of a colossal failure. Why did it take bodies being carried from a smoldering building to mandate that evacuation routes be posted on a resident’s door? Why did it take a fatal blaze for the state to demand that facilities simply report the age of their fire safety systems?
These aren’t just uncomfortable questions. They are an indictment.
For too long, we have mistaken compliance paperwork for a culture of safety. We trusted that profit-driven facilities and overstretched state agencies were upholding their end of the bargain. The fire at Gabriel House burned that illusion to the ground.
The fact that the state must now order facilities to communicate safety plans to families reveals a terrifying gap in transparency. The mandate for immediate fire safety assessments confirms what many have feared: that the agencies tasked with oversight may have been flying blind, unaware of the crumbling infrastructure and inadequate protocols inside the very buildings they were supposed to monitor.
This isn’t just about one facility. It’s about a statewide system where the well-being of our parents and grandparents has been subordinated to bureaucratic convenience and the bottom line. The COVID-19 pandemic already exposed the fragility of our elder care systems. We learned nothing if we are now facing a fire safety crisis that was just as predictable and just as deadly.
If we are serious about preventing the next Fall River, our response cannot end with the governor’s press conference. Real reform is not a suggestion box; it is a set of non-negotiable demands. The industry’s pledges of cooperation are welcome, but trust must be earned through action, not press releases.
We must demand:
Aggressive, Unannounced Inspections. End the charade of facilities self-assessing their way to a passing grade. We need surprise inspections with real teeth and steep, public fines for non-compliance.
Mandatory Staffing-to-Resident Ratios for Evacuations. A perfect evacuation plan is worthless without enough staff to execute it. We must establish and enforce staffing levels sufficient to get every resident out in a crisis, not just on a sunny afternoon.
“A Safe Buildings” Fund and Mandate. The state must create a fund to help older facilities modernize with critical upgrades like sprinkler systems, while also mandating that all facilities meet modern fire codes within a strict timeframe. No more grandfather clauses for safety.
A Public Safety Dashboard. Every family has the right to know the safety record of a facility before they entrust their loved one to its care. All inspection results, violations, and staffing levels must be published online in an easily accessible database.
Implementing these, and other, reforms could be achieved without wasting time for more study. An Assisted Living Commission, established in last year’s long-term care reform law, is due to report within weeks, although its draft report is largely silent on life safety recommendations.
The commission should not worry about its August 1 reporting deadline if it gets this issue right.
Attorney General Andrea Campbell is on the cusp of releasing new assisted living consumer protection regulations that could easily address issues responsive to the Fall River tragedy. There’s no reason to delay and both actions would be fitting memorials to the victims of the fire.
The residents of Gabriel House were more than statistics. They were mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers. They were people who trusted the Commonwealth to keep them safe in their final years. We broke that trust.
We cannot bring them back. But we can honor their memory by ensuring no other family has to receive that horrific phone call. The true test of our leadership will not be in the flurry of activity last week, but in the sustained, relentless oversight months and years from now, long after the cameras have moved on.
The ashes in Fall River are a stain on our conscience. The wake-up call has sounded. We cannot afford to hit snooze again.
Richard Moore is a co-founder and legislative chair of Dignity Alliance Massachusetts, a statewide coalition advocating for older adults, people with disabilities, and caregivers. He is also a member of the National Consumer Voice Leadership Council and a former Massachusetts state senator.
Commonwealth News Service