The mayor says the city is working on returning personal belongings, medication and keeping health at the forefront.

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.

FALL RIVER — The nine residents killed in a fire here at Gabriel House, an assisted living residence, are being remembered as fonts of knowledge and symbols of longevity.

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.

Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon confirmed on Monday morning that emergency services performed "dozens of rescues to save multiple lives" but nine people had died in the fire and more than 30 were injured. There were around 70 residents in the building.

Top Massachusetts officials are suggesting the state consider new ways to regulate and finance so-called affordable assisted living homes after the deadly fire Sunday night at the facility for seniors in Fall River that relies heavily on public funding.

A five-year resident of the Gabriel House in Fall River, Donna Murphy, told NBC 10 that for the first time in five years, she didn't sleep at home.