9 dead, dozens hurt in fire at assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts: Officials
(FALL RIVER, Mass.) — Nine people have been killed and dozens are hurt as a fire tore through an assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, officials said.
About 50 firefighters, including about 30 who were off duty, descended on the scene of the Sunday night fire at the Gabriel House assisted-living facility, officials said.
Some people were rescued through their windows at the hard-to-access building, Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said.
Thirty people, including five firefighters, were taken to local hospitals after the five-alarm fire, Bacon said.
One person is in critical condition, Bacon said. The five firefighters have already been released, officials said.
The building — which was home to about 70 people — is now clear, officials said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. One official briefed on the probe told ABC News that, as a preliminary matter, the fire does not appear to have been set intentionally. More likely, the source said, it appears to have been caused by some sort of electrical or mechanical problem.
It’s not clear if the sprinklers went off, officials said.
“My heart goes out to those who are waking up to the most horrific news imaginable about their loved ones this morning,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement on Monday. “I’m grateful to the firefighters and first responders whose heroic efforts saved lives. We are all praying for those who lost loved ones and for the full recovery of those who were injured.”
“A full investigation is already underway,” she continued. “I know the people of Fall River are strong and resilience, and now is the time for us to all come together to support one another through this terrible tragedy.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Matt Foster and Jessica Gorman contributed to this report.
A woman was killed and five other people were hurt when gunfire erupted early Sunday at a large outdoor gathering on Chicago’s West Side – one of three separate shootings to occur in the same neighborhood in fewer than three hours, according to police.
The shooting occurred just before 2:48 a.m. local time on North La Cross Avenue in the South Austin neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago, according to an incident report from the Chicago Police Department.
“Officers responded to a call of a large gathering and found multiple people shot,” police said in the report.
When officers arrived at the scene they found six people suffering from gunshot wounds, officials said.
A 22-year-old woman was discovered with a gunshot wound to the back and was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital in Chicago, where she was pronounced dead, police said. The victim’s name was not immediately released.
Five other people suffered gunshot wounds in the incident, including two 18-year-old boys and a 17-year-boy. One of the 18-year-old victims was shot in the chest and left arm. Police said he was in critical condition at Stroger Hospital in Chicago, while the 17-year-old sustained a gunshot wound to the left thigh and was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital in critical condition. The other 18-year-old was treated at the scene for a graze wound to his left hand, police said.
A 29-year-old man shot in the right leg was also in critical condition at Loretto Hospital in Chicago, according to police.
The shooting also left a 29-year-old woman with a gunshot wound to her right elbow, according to police, who said she was taken to Rush Hospital in good condition.
No arrests had been announced as of Sunday afternoon. A motive for the shooting remains under investigation, according to police.
At least two other shootings occurred in the same Chicago neighborhood on Sunday morning. Police have not said if the shootings are related.
About three blocks from the North La Cross Avenue mass shooting, an 18-year-old boy was shot in the back on West Maypole Avenue at about 4:37 a.m. and later died at Stroger Hospital, police said. A second 18-year-old boy was also shot in the arm during the shooting, according to police.
The two teenagers were shot after getting into an argument with a gunman who fired at them from a vehicle, police said. No arrests have been announced.
About an hour before the mass shooting on North La Cross Avenue, police responded to a reports of shots fired about a block away on North Lamon Avenue and found a 20-year-old woman suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to her arm, according to police. The woman was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where she was in good condition, police said. No arrests have been announced.
The Chicago shootings occurred less than a day after one person was killed and five others wounded, including a 5-year-old girl, in a mass shooting at an outdoor gathering in Baltimore, Md. A motive for that shooting remains under investigation, according to police.
Debris is piled up at the entrance to Camp Mystic on July 07, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
(KERR COUNTY, Texas) — The parents of children who were among the 27 killed at Camp Mystic on Texas’ Guadalupe River during the historic Fourth of July flash flooding that devastated the Hill Country region began giving emotional testify on Wednesday before a state legislative committee probing the disaster.
A coalition of Camp Mystic parents are testifying before the Texas Senate Disaster Preparedness and Flooding Select Committee, which is considering reforms to increase safety at youth camps across the state.
Cici Williams Steward told the committee that her 8-year-old daughter, Cile Steward, is the only Camp Mystic camper still missing, and one of two flood victims that remain unaccounted for in the wake of the disaster.
“Three generations of women in my family went to Camp Mystic. This year, it was finally Cile’s turn. She was 8 years old, going for the very first time, her heart full of excitement to join the tradition of her mother, her aunt and her grandmother, her great aunt and five cousins,” Steward told the panel. “For Cile, camp meant adventure, memories, friendships, and lessons to carry for a lifetime. For me, it meant watching my child grow and learn, but always under the assurance that she would be safe.”
Steward added, “Joy and growth cannot exist without safety. Cile’s chance to experience camp only existed because I was ensured that her safety and the safety of all the young girls was paramount. I ask you, what could have been more important than that? But that assurance was betrayed. Obvious common-sense safety measures were absent, protocols that should have been in place were ignored. As a result, my daughter was stolen from us.
Sitting next to her husband, Steward said the agonizing experience of waiting for her daughter’s remains to be recovered has left her and her family in a “torture chamber of uncertainty.”
“Cile’s life ended, not because of an unavoidable act of nature, but because of preventable failures on just her fifth day of camp,” Steward said, breaking into tears.
Steward and the other parents who testified asked the committee to pass Senate Bill 1, a measure that will boost safety at campgrounds along the Guadalupe River, where Camp Mystic was devastated during the flood.
“Our children’s lives were cut short because the safeguards in place were not enough,” the Campaign for Camp Safety, a group that includes the Camp Mystic parents, said in a statement released this week ahead of Wednesday’s hearing. “We are asking lawmakers to make sure no other family ever has to endure the pain we have lived with every day since July 4th.”
Texas State Sen. Charles Perry said the senate bill will place “basic campground safety reforms” on campgrounds, requiring them to have emergency plans on file with the county, prevent cabins from being constructed in flood plains, force camps to equip cabins with safety roof-top ladders and radios and require them to have at least two separate internet connections.
Perry said that had Senate Bill 1 — which will be renamed the “Heaven 27 Camp Safety Act” — been in existence during the flood, “I have no doubt that some lives, if not all lives, would have been saved on the camp front.”
The parents testifying on Wednesday were expected to make additional suggestions on how to improve camp safety along the Guadalupe River. In its statement, the group said it wants lawmakers to require campgrounds in a 100-year floodplain like Camp Mystic to equip cabins with emergency rooftop ladders and develop flash flood evacuation plans.
“It didn’t even cross my mind that a camp like Mystic wouldn’t have a detailed emergency procedure in place. When action was finally taken, it was too little, too late,” Michael McCown, whose 7-year-old daughter, Linnie McCown, died in the flooding. We did not send Linnie to a war zone. We sent her to camp. We trusted she would be safe. No parent should ever again face what we are living through now.”
Carrie Hanna described her 8-year-old daughter, Hadley, as a “hilarious, kind, caring, silly, loving little girl who always wanted to help others.”
“I told her camp was the safest place she could be, and she would make new friends and learn new things,” Hanna said. “I lied to her. She not only wasn’t safe, she died.”
Hanna said her daughter died “because there was no plan, because there was no backup system or sirens, because the sweet 18- and 19-year-old counselors did not have the training they needed.”
“Instead, they were told to stay in place, a rule that proved to be fatal,” Hanna said.
Wiping away tears, Clark Baker held up a photo of his 8-year-old daughter, Mary Grace Baker, holding up a fish she had caught.
“This picture you’re seeing was my last living memory of my daughter,” Baker said.
Camp Mystic, one of 19 youth summer camps on the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas, was devastated on July 4 when torrential rains fell over a short amount of time, causing the river to overflow in the early morning hours of July 4, trapping many campers in their cabins. Officials in hard-hit Kerr County, where Camp Mystic is located, said that more than 12 inches of rain fell in under 6 hours, and that the Guadalupe River rose more than 20 feet per hour during the storm.
At least 138 people were killed in flash flooding across the Hill Country region, including 117 in Kerr County, officials said.
During an Aug. 1 hearing of the Texas House and Senate Select Committees on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding, the Kerr County emergency management director conceded that he was sick and asleep as the water rose to historic levels on the Guadalupe River.
Other Kerr County officials testified that an inadequate flash-flood warning system upstream contributed to the disaster.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly testified that in the aftermath of the flooding, the county commissioned an independent hydrology study that confirmed the July weather event was a 1,000-year flood.
“By the time flooding became visible downstream, upstream communities, including multiple youth camps, were already underwater,” Kelly said.
When committee members asked Kelly why an evacuation order was not issued, he said, “It was too late.”
ABC News’ Jeffrey Cook contributed to this report.
(SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, Pa.) — Two state troopers were shot while responding to a call in northeastern Pennsylvania on Thursday, according to the Pennsylvania State Police.
They were taken to hospitals in unknown conditions after the shooting on Route 171 in Susquehanna County, police said.
“The scene remains very active and information on the suspect will be released at a later time,” police said in a statement.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he planned to head to the scene and that he and his wife “are praying for them.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
