Fall River fire lieutenant recalls 'sheer chaos' and rescues at assisted living facility fire

Some Fall River firefighters who've been on the job for decades say the fire at an assisted living facility Sunday night was the toughest rescue they've ever faced.

Nine residents of Gabriel House died, and 30 more were injured. A few dozen others made it out safely.

WBUR's All Things Considered host Lisa Mullins spoke with Lt. Paul Machado, a 30-year veteran of the fire department who helped rescue residents of the three-story building by ladder.

Below are highlights from their conversation, which have been lightly edited.

On what is foremost on his mind when he thinks back to the fire scene:

"The utter, sheer chaos — and then how well everybody stepped up and worked seamlessly. EMS, police. We had police officers helping us drop ladders and throw them, not knowing what they were doing. Out of sheer, utter chaos, good things happened.

"My truck is the heavy rescue. We don't carry hose, we don't carry water. We don't have ladders. Our job is for search and rescue. And we let the other apparatus get to the front of the building. We came behind [the building], and [the fire chief] was already calling for extra pieces [and saying], 'Start rescues. Everybody, rescue, rescue, rescue.'

"So we pulled up, we were masking up to go in. And I looked up to the side, and all you could see were people screaming for help out of the windows. So we switched to the exterior, called for ladders. ... It was 10, if not 11, people [being rescued] down over ladders just from that one side [of the building]."

On why ladder rescues are so difficult:

"It's risky. It's labor intensive. You have people that some of them were in walkers, some of them were in wheelchairs. They were just elderly, terrified. The alarms are going off, the building's full of smoke,  they're confused on what's going on, and we're trying to grab them and take them out a ladder. That's fighting, I think, every bit of human nature to let somebody grab you and carry you out of a window and take you down a ladder.

"That was extremely difficult to deal with. And at the same time, you just get it done because as soon as you brought them down, there was somebody else in another window — more people needing help. We're hearing the radio chatter — the other guys from the other side [of the building] that were knocking the fire down, searching on the other side, going inside. ... The courtyard, [it's] full of civilians. People are screaming, 'They need help. They need help.' That's not something we ever practice for, you know.

"My side job, I'm an instructor at the state fire academy. I've been there for 17 years. So we teach building rescues. You know, you plan, you practice. You think maybe one person. In my career, I've been on scene twice [when] we've taken a person down the ladder. Never multiple, all at once."

On the challenges involved in rescuing people who have mobility issues:

"We were doing the best we could. There is a technique to hold them and kind of half slide them down the ladder as you're carrying them down. That worked some of the times. Other times, it was breaking all the rules, whatever you could do to get them down. ... And [then] that was the all hands on deck. I saw police officers running with backboards, EMS coming up with a stretcher. I actually saw one person get carried out on a roof ladder, just to bring them around the corner to EMS [and then] to come right back and get more.

"The first window I went to was an elderly man. He's like, 'I need help.' I'm like, 'I'm here for you, and I'm gonna get you out.' And he says, 'Get my sister first. She can't walk.' I'm like, I'm sticking my head [into the apartment], 'Where is she?' [And the man said], 'Oh, no, no — she's next door. She's at that other window.' And I'm like, 'Let me get you.' He's like, 'No, get my sister first.' So we got another ladder to that window, and somebody else went in to go grab her. And I took him down.

"Unfortunately, the last rescue that we managed got a little technical. We had to use some ropes ... and I was told that lady succumbed to her injuries. And in between, everybody else from where I was and all the people that were working on the side [of the building] with me, everybody else made it."

On the emotions he and his fellow firefighters are confronting:

"We're a very tight group. The whole department is. ... We all reach out. We all check in on each other... I'm checking on them, [asking], 'How are you? Are you getting sleep? Are you dealing okay with this? You have an outlet?'

"And then I just tell them, 'Listen, you know, you guys performed incredible. You did everything you could, and then picked yourself back up and gave even more to the point of complete exhaustion and [being] drained.'

"And it's awful. One death at a fire is is too many. And then we have nine. But then I also tell them, 'You know, there were over seventy people living there. Look how many people got out. And that's from you. That's from your work."