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.

Flames tore through an assisted-living facility in Massachusetts, killing nine people and injuring at least 30.

Firefighters responding to the Gabriel House on Oliver Street around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday found heavy fire at the main entrance of the building, according to the Fall River Fire Department.