FALL RIVER – Thirty-nine people affected by the deadly, catastrophic Gabriel House fire have combined their efforts to get justice, in a massive civil lawsuit against the assisted living facility's owners – and have expanded the scope of the charges to include accusations of abuse and neglect at the facility.
A series of separate lawsuits against Gabriel Care LLC, owner Dennis Etzkorn, fire systems inspection company Fire Systems Inc. and others, have been combined into one master complaint.
But it has been revised to name even more defendants and lodge 49 charges of negligence, fraudulent misrepresentation, civil conspiracy and much more.
The civil suit, 130 pages long, also indicates further defendants may be added in the future when their identities are revealed during the discovery process.
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The lawsuit alleges that even before the fire, Gabriel House was unsafe for residents, with operators knowingly letting people live in hazardous conditions. Poorly trained staff turned a blind eye to residents smoking near oxygen, the suit alleges, did not report safety violations as they should have, and were improperly trained for emergencies, showing a "reckless disregard for the safety and well-being of the property's vulnerable residents."
It further alleges that the owners knew fire safety equipment was defective but did nothing to fix it, and carried property insurance to protect themselves but no liability insurance to protect residents and their families in a disaster.
The operators of Gabriel House "derived substantial financial benefit from the operation of Gabriel House while failing to devote adequate resources to staffing, maintenance, emergency preparedness, and compliance with applicable life safety requirements," the suit reads.
The fire at Gabriel House on July 13, 2025, was among the most devastating the state has ever seen. Ten residents were killed in the blaze, leaving behind grieving families. Dozens of survivors were injured by smoke inhalation and burns. All have been displaced and lost most if not all of their possessions.
A preliminary investigation by the Department of Fire Services has determined that the fire began in a resident's room, likely due to a faulty oxygen concentrator or improper use of smoking materials. The fire spread when sprinklers in parts of the building did not function; the system was found to be using old sprinkler heads that were subject to recall due to failure risk.
The suit, filed in Bristol County Superior Court, alleges 49 separate counts of wrongdoing.
The defendants are all those involved with the operations of Gabriel House, including Etzkorn and two members of his family.
New defendants named in the lawsuit include the companies responsible for manufacturing sprinkler heads found to be defective and present inside Gabriel House; the people who inspected the sprinkler system; suppliers of medical oxygen to residents; and people who were mandatory reporters for Gabriel House residents.
Not all the defendants are known yet. The suit reserves the right to name them once more information is provided through discovery.
Gabriel Care Inc. and Gabriel Care LLC, which operated the Gabriel House assisted living facility
owner Dennis Etzkorn, individually
Dennis and Karen Etzkorn as trustees of the 261 Oliver Street Realty Trust, which owns the property
Gavin Etzkorn as a "client services professional" employed by Gabriel Care LLC
Fire Systems Inc., the Dartmouth-based company that performed fire safety systems inspections at Gabriel House
North American Fire Holdings LLC and North American Fire Ultimate Holdings LP, the company and limited partnership doing business as Altus Fire & Life Safety, parent company of FSI
Tyco Fire Products LP, the sprinkler system company liable for Central Sprinkler Co. sprinkler heads, which were installed at Gabriel House
Johnson Controls International PLC, an Ireland-based company that is the parent company of Tyco
currently unknown oxygen suppliers responsible for delivering medical oxygen equipment to Gabriel House, including the room where the fire originated
currently unknown people who were mandatory reporters and required to report instances of abuse at the facility
currently unknown people who performed the fire inspections at Gabriel House
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Thirty-nine people are listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Some are surviving residents, and others are representatives of deceased residents:
Robert Albernaz, on behalf of the state of Rui Albernaz
Ronald J. Codega Sr., on behalf of the estate of Ronald Codega Jr.
James Duddy, on behalf of the estate of Margaret Duddy
Beverly Eddy, on behalf of the estate of Robert King
Ashley Hurley, on behalf of the estate of Brenda Cropper
Austin B. Mackin, on behalf of the estate of Kim Mackin
Holly Mallowes, on behalf of the estate of Eleanor Willett
Lisa MarieAnn Peterson, on behalf of the estate of Richard Rochon
The litany of charges largely focuses on the operators of Gabriel House, which had about 70 residents at the time of the fire.
The suit alleges that Dennis and Gavin Etzkorn "exercised day-to-day managerial and operational control over Gabriel House," and that they did not "employ and maintain sufficient personnel to safely evacuate residents with physical, cognitive and mobility impairments in the event of a fire or other emergency."
This includes allegedly failing to maintain a proper Emergency Preparedness Plan, allegedly failing to conduct evacuation drills, allegedly not properly inspecting and maintaining life safety systems and more.
They also allegedly "should have known that residents regularly smoked cigarettes on our about the property" while residents used medical oxygen, and that their alleged failure "to adequately enforce a smoke-free environment" caused a catastrophe.
The suit also notes that Gabriel House's elevator, which had been broken for months before the fire, is indicative of the owners' failure to maintain a safe environment for the elderly and disabled residents.
The suit notes that while the company owners bought insurance to cover the property and their own interests, "comparable liability coverage was not obtained or maintained."
The defendants should have known, the suit alleges, that caring for about 70 elderly and disabled residents would require "substantial liability insurance protection" for victims and their families in case of a disaster.
Bristol County Superior Court Judge Raffi Yessayan, who is overseeing the lawsuit, has in previous court appearances, asked attorneys for Gabriel Care and Etzkorn how the company could "conceive of a building with 70 elderly people in it and not have any liability insurance?"
Assisted living residences are not legally required to carry liability insurance, according to the state Executive Office of Aging & Independence.
The charges also name and shame fire system inspection company FSI and its parent company, Altus Fire & Life Safety, for allegedly not performing adequate fire inspections that could have noticed the sprinklers at Gabriel House were defective.
On Sept. 12, 2024, an inspector with FSI found sprinkler heads being used at Gabriel House that were manufactured by Central Sprinkler Co. and subject to recall; they were corroded and likely to fail.
FSI notified Gabriel House that these required "mandatory replacement."
The sprinkler heads were allegedly never replaced – and the suit alleges that FSI nevertheless followed up with inspections that never again flagged the recalled, corroded sprinklers, including an inspection only eight days before the fire.
Further, FSI allegedly never notified the Fall River Fire Department about the discovery.
One of those defective sprinkler heads was found inside a resident's room where the fire began.
Gabriel Care and FSI have filed counterclaims against each other over the issue of the sprinkler inspection.
Tyco Fire Products and Johnson Controls International have assumed liability for products made by Central Sprinkler Co., and are accused of not ensuring their products were removed from Gabriel House before the fire.
Since the fire, FRFD has undertaken inspections of other multi-unit properties and found other sprinklers under recall. It has also begun attempts to change National Fire Prevention Association regulations regarding sprinkler inspections.
The plaintiffs have not yet identified the suppliers of medical oxygen products to Gabriel House residents. They are accused of not adequately warning or training users about the fire risk of smoking around oxygen, and that they should have known Gabriel House staff was lax about enforcing a no-smoking policy.
Neither have all the facility's mandatory reporters yet identified. They are accused of not reporting to the proper authorities the fact that residents regularly smoked in Gabriel House around oxygen.
They're also accused of not reporting that elderly residents were living in poor and unsafe conditions tantamount to "abuse," including being subject to "infestations, mold, faulty and broken mechanical and electrical systems." The suit accuses these mandatory reports of knowing the staff was inadequately trained for a disaster but doing nothing.
In February, OSHA levied fines of $186,000 against the operators of Gabriel House, citing 13 violations of workplace safety standards; 11 violations were considered serious.
The plaintiffs have successfully prevented the owners from using about $6 million in proceeds from Gabriel House's property insurance payout or from selling the property.
The funds have been frozen pending the outcome of the suit, which may take years.
The bank that held the mortgage on the Gabriel House property was allowed to claim nearly $1 million to pay the outstanding balance.
The incident is also reportedly being investigated by the state Attorney General's Office.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: 39 plaintiffs unite in sweeping Gabriel House fire lawsuit | Exclusive