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.

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.

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.)

Police released body-worn camera video showing rescues from the night an assisted living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts caught fire, killing at least nine people.

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.