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.

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.

Assisted living centers are rare in Mass, but many families still don’t know what they offer — or what they don’t.

WBZ-TV 's I-Team has found Dennis Etzkorn, the owner of Gabriel House in Fall River, has legal controversies in his past.

The 100-unit assisted-living facility that burned Sunday night, killing nine people so far, opened in 1999 in Fall River, Massachusetts. Some photos on its Facebook page show neat rooms but older-looking carpeting and furniture, and before the fire state inspectors had hit the facility with health and safety citations.

Police, fire, and EMS crews worked to rescue residents as smoke and flames spread through Gabriel House Assisted Living Facility in the heart of the city.