Shirley Chambra was outside smoking a cigarette when she saw sparks and then flames at her home: the Gabriel House assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts.

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.

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.

The fire that claimed nine lives at an assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, "was destined to kill 50-plus people," according to the local fire 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.

Video from police body cameras shows officers entering the building during the fire and assisting with the rescues of residents. (The Fall River Police Department edited this footage.)

There’s no doubt in my mind that that fire was destined to kill 50-plus people,” Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said Wednesday.