Assisted living centers are rare in Mass, but many families still don’t know what they offer or how they differ from other elder care facilities.

Nine people have died after a Massachusetts assisted living facility caught fire Sunday night. The death toll was revised after an error from the district attorney’s office on Friday. Elderly residents rushed to their windows to scream and beg for help as smoke filled the hallways.

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.

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.

According to Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon, the blaze started in a room on the second floor on the east side of the Gabriel House building, but details about the exact origin and cause are under investigation.

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.

Nine people have been killed and dozens are hurt as a fire tore through an assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, officials said.

Nine people died and dozens were hurt in a fire at the Gabriel House Assisted Living Facility, and finger-pointing has already begun over whether there were enough firefighters to respond and whether staff at the facility did enough to help.

Following the deadly fire in Fall River, there's been confusion about the difference between assisted living and nursing homes.