River gathered on Friday evening at a social club to raise money for victims of the fire at Gabriel House, and to pray for healing at St. Anne Shrine.

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.

Jeffrey Bacon said the fire was "destined to kill" more than 50 people, but heroic acts limited the tragic loss of life.

It’s very important in a crisis that people stay in contact,” Mayor Paul Coogan said in a wide-ranging interview from his office Friday.

River fire union has claimed more lives could have been saved if more firefighters were on scene. The mayor says the department was staffed as requested by the chief.

A Massachusetts assisted-living center where nine residents died in a fire was cited for failing to immediately report more than two dozen health and safety incidents.

More than 75 percent of Gabriel House residents are enrolled in Medicaid, state officials have said, and it charges significantly less than a typical assisted living facility does for private-paying patients.