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Boston Globe
06-08-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Bedbugs, cigarettes, and a broken elevator: Life at Gabriel House before the fire
So began a normal Sunday at the Gabriel House in Fall River. For many who lived there, life felt like a tragedy long before July 13, the night a fire broke out that killed 10 people and displaced dozens more. It was a home of last resort for some who had been homeless or could not afford anything else. For those who lived there, there was little to do beyond television and the occasional game of Monopoly; an elevator that always seemed to be down; infestations of mice, cockroaches, and bedbugs; and everywhere, the smell of cigarette smoke. Gabriel House had a In response to a detailed list of questions about living conditions at Gabriel House, owner Dennis Etzkorn said the facility has been found to be 'consistently in compliance with regulation, with rare exceptions that were promptly addressed.' Still, there were bright spots of color that surfaced through the film of gray. Friendships — and romances — sparked. Nelson Gonzalez, the facility's maintenance man, was painstakingly refurbishing rooms after years of wear, replacing old rugs worn down from years of residents who were incontinent. Occasional activities, such as bingo or Bible study, lit up weekdays. Gabriel House opened in 1999 on the site of a former motel, and sometimes it still felt like one — the modest rooms branching off the hallways and limited common areas. Scott Allan lived on the first floor in a humbly furnished 10 x 17 room he jokingly called his 'garden apartment.' A stroke victim who uses a wheelchair, Allan, 63, maintained a glimmer of hope that someday he would leave this place. Others appeared to have accepted that Gabriel House, sparse and uncomfortable, was destined to be the last, difficult chapter of their lives. Allan's daughter and granddaughter live in Portland, Maine, but they didn't have a chance to visit often, he said. Instead, his entertainment often came over the airwaves: services on Sundays, baseball as often as possible. On that Sunday, the Red Sox swept the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway for their 10th straight win. It was perhaps the brightest spot in an otherwise average day. Meanwhile, in Rui Albernaz's room, he and Debbie Bigelow were bickering over his scratch ticket habit. The two had been dating for years, and Bigelow said she had picked out a long green dress for when they got married someday. Albernaz was well known at Gabriel House and in the broader community: On his near-daily outings to Dunkin' Donuts, he always made the workers laugh. One Halloween he showed up in a lace dress and a wig. At Gabriel House, he and Bigelow played bean bag toss and did arts and crafts. Albernaz called everyone buddy, but Bigelow said she told him, 'I'm not a boy, call me 'babe.' ' Advertisement The scratchies, though, were a consistent source of tension. On that Sunday before the fire, Albernaz asked Bigelow for $11 for a scratch ticket, she recalled. She offered him $7. He called her 'cheap.' Rui Albernaz, 64, one of the victims of the Fall River fire. Alda Albernaz 'I was always getting after him' for the scratch tickets, Bigelow said. 'In the end I said, 'OK, you can play it.' ' Bigelow saw Albernaz at lunch, but she didn't join him, she said. It certainly wasn't the food that lit up residents' days at Gabriel House. Many complained of meals that were bland at best and inedible at worst. The The food offerings were particularly unappetizing for Donna Murphy, a longtime resident who worked for years for her family catering business. Murphy worked on food for the mills and for banquets, carving watermelons into elaborate baskets for big events. She was an amazing cook, said Nancy Jones, her sister. The bland offerings of Gabriel House were an insult she often declined. ' 'Can I go back there? Let me give you a hand,' ' Murphy would often joke of the modest facility kitchen, Jones recalled. Advertisement When Murphy moved in five years ago, her family had stocked her room with cereal and other perishable snacks. Within days, mice had eaten through them, her sister said. Jones came back with secure plastic bins to protect the food from the rodents. Her sister still craved better food from the outside. Every Thursday, Murphy's son brought her hot dogs from JJ's on South Main Street, Jones said. Sunday was an unusual day for Murphy: Her granddaughter picked her up that afternoon for a rare overnight stay at her house. The family has come to think of it as an act of God. Murphy, for her part, has been wracked by survivor's guilt, and was hospitalized for a panic attack. By midday Sunday, Eleanor Willett, too, was enjoying family time. Some of the residents of Gabriel House were lonely, or drew few visits. Not Willett, who seemed always to be surrounded by family. Her daughter Terry Leuvelink came every other day, and that Sunday, Willett's son Paul visited. She spent a chunk of the afternoon with him and her great-great-grandson, Jamison. Around 1:15, she perched on her bed in a pink robe and posed with her arms around the boy. When her relatives left around 3:30 p.m., everything was normal. They didn't realize it was the last time they would see her alive. Eleanor Willett (center) with daughter Terry Leuvelink (left) and granddaughter Holly Mallowes. Holly Mallowes While Gabriel House offered some activities, the time could pass slowly for those who didn't have family visiting. Residents watched television alone or together, or played games. And they smoked — inside and outside, they smoked. Residents gathered in a covered part of the rear parking lot most days to smoke and chat. They gossiped like middle schoolers, Gonzalez said, including and especially the foursome he affectionately called the 'Golden Girls.' Pimentel liked to sit out back feeding pigeons, seagulls, and sparrows, and smoking. Advertisement Residents were not supposed to smoke indoors, but everyone knew that they did. Family members might arrive to find full ashtrays in their loved ones' bedrooms. Gonzalez found burn marks on the walls in their rooms. Residents might be fined $25, but it was hardly a deterrent, and they didn't always pay. A certified nursing assistant said she once entered a resident's room to find her bed in flames. There were other risks, too: the appliances residents weren't supposed to have in their bedrooms, but seemed to anyway — toasters, coffee pots, air fryers. Preliminary reports suggest the fire could have been caused by the presence of Dinner always came early at Gabriel House. The cook, who had been working since 3 that morning, headed home around 6:30 p.m. By then, residents were winding down, too. Neal Beck, 78, had been homeless before he came to Gabriel House three years ago. On that Sunday, he went to bed in his third floor room around 6 p.m., more than three hours before the fire would be called in. 'I'm an old guy,' Beck said. 'I go to bed early.' Allan can't even remember if he attended dinner that day. He, too, was in bed by 7 p.m. Pimentel finished dinner, watched TV, and played solitaire on his phone. He must have put the phone in his pocket. Hours later, when he emerged stunned from the flames, there it was. He was one of the few who left the ordeal with his phone. Advertisement Like normal, Bigelow had dinner early. She took a shower and got ready for bed. On a normal night, Bigelow would have been with Albernaz, she said. They made love and talked a lot — 'time really flies when you're talking,' he used to tell her. But not Sunday. Albernaz came down to ask if she'd join him in his room, but after their 'little scuffle' earlier in the day, she declined. She promised, though, to accompany him to a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. Neither knew the fire would take his life before that. Albernaz returned to his third floor room without her. Up on the third floor, Steven Oldrid was still awake. He'd been offered a room on the first floor when he moved in, but rejected it as dark, smelly, and dirty, said Robin Gouveia, a lawyer who is representing Oldrid in a Oldrid was watching TV that Sunday night. CNN was airing a documentary about the Live Aid concert. He figured he'd go to bed when it was over. Then Oldrid heard an alarm. It wasn't so unusual to hear it going off like that, in a facility that often felt noisy and chaotic. For months, decade-old smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors had been out of battery or out of service, bleeping and bleeping at residents while they tried to rest in their rooms. Recently, Gonzalez swore up and down, he had replaced the sensor in every single room with a new, functional combination smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector. Of this he was absolutely sure. When the alarms started to go off, Oldrid thought little of it at first: They went off all the time. Then he heard yelling — also not so unusual. The residents had a range of needs and mental health statuses. To hear a commotion was not out of the ordinary. Then Oldrid opened the door to thick, dark smoke. In his power chair, there was nowhere for him to go. Besides, he had read that he should stay put in case of emergency. He closed his door and waited. A wheelchair sat in front of the shuttered Gabriel House beside the memorial for the fire victims on July 18. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff Emma Platoff can be reached at
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Jake Johnson seeks validation in JMA Motorsports' home race at Seekonk Speedway
More than a year has passed since Jake Johnson brought Ole Blue back to Victory Lane on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, a win that arrived at Monadnock Speedway in New Hampshire. A lot has changed for Johnson since that day, but his commitment to winning in Modifieds remains unwavering. Now part-time in the series with JMA Motorsports, Johnson is set to make his second Modified Tour appearance with the program in Saturday's J&R Precast 150 at Massachussets' Seekonk Speedway. Advertisement Johnson's first start with JMA earlier this season at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park saw him qualify on the outside pole before he was eliminated in a wreck with nine laps to go. Despite the Thompson race ending in disappointment, Johnson said the cohesion he and JMA displayed that weekend has provided him plenty of optimism ahead of Saturday's race. 'We've had a pretty good year so far,' Johnson said. 'Everywhere we've shown up with my family car or the No. 07 car, we've had a lot of speed. I'm excited to get back in the No. 07, because [even though] Thompson was rough, we showed good speed. 'These guys are deserving of a good run, and I think we can put one together [at Seekonk].' Johnson was enjoying a career season on the Modified Tour last year before he sustained a hard crash in the second race at Thompson. After the wreck, Johnson parted ways with Boehler Racing Enterprises and did not return to the series for the rest of 2024. Jake Johnson driver of the #3 Propane Plus; Lin\ As Johnson was crafting a 2025 racing schedule with his family car, JMA co-owners Mike and Justin Albernaz reached out to him about competing in select Modified Tour events. Johnson jumped at the offer to race with JMA, which now assists his own program in other Modified events around the northeast. Advertisement The Albernaz family's involvement in motorsports extends far beyond Modified competition. Mike operated CJ Racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series from 1999-00, when he fielded entries for a variety of drivers like David Starr, Lonnie Rush Jr. and 2008 Modified Tour champion Ted Christopher. Mike's hands-on approach to racing was passed down to his grandson Justin, who also serves as the crew chief for the No. 07 Modified. The addition of Johnson to JMA's program has been invaluable for the younger Albernaz, who praised the determination his driver displays both on and off the track. '[Jake] is 100 percent focused on racing,' Albernaz said. 'His mind is in it, and he's not only worried about driving it, he's worried about getting the car right. He's very talented behind the wheel. He's aggressive at times, but that's what you need to get the job done sometimes.' RELATED: Career stats for Jake Johnson Advertisement One aspect of the partnership between Johnson and JMA involves the crews from both programs working on the same car. Combining resources made the duo stronger and reinforced the expectations Johnson and the Albernaz family have for the Modified Tour, which is to win a race together. Thompson showcased that Johnson and JMA could hold their own with the full-time Modified Tour operations across the board. The two sides are eager to shake off the late-race crash from Thompson and utilize their collective knowledge by putting together a complete weekend at Seekonk. Especially since this is a hometown affair for nearly everyone involved at JMA. 'Seekonk was probably the first one that got put on the list just because [JMA's] shop is about three minutes away,' Johnson said. 'Seekonk is about 10 minutes from my house, so it's a special place for us because it's our home turf. We always run good there, and [JMA] used to run good there when we did open racing at Seekonk. Advertisement 'It made a lot of sense for us to circle Seekonk.' Jake Johnson, driver of the number 07 Lin's Propane; Propane Plus; Platinum Fire Protection; Island International; Axis Wealth Partners modified, during the IceBreaker 150 for the Whelen Modified Tour at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on April 16, 2025 in Thompson, Connecticut. (Rob Branning/NASCAR) Countless trips to Seekonk over the years have provided Albernaz plenty of insight into all the fundamentals necessary to prevail. The facility only being 0.333 miles in length means laps will click of rapidly Saturday evening. That emphasizes the importance of obtaining solid track position in qualifying. Albernaz does not see qualifying being a problem for Johnson at Seekonk given how fast he was in the No. 07 at Thompson. The challenge for Albernaz will be designing a setup that responds well to Seekonk's unique characteristics and puts Johnson in the best position to upset the Modified Tour regulars. Advertisement '[Seekonk] is a very tough track to get around,' Albernaz said. 'It's very throttle-sensitive and this race is going to be all about saving tires. That's going to be the biggest talk in the garage probably for the entire race. With Jake's laps on the track and our expertise with how many races we've run there, I think we should be pretty good.' A Modified Tour win at his family's home track would be an emotional, cathartic moment for Albernaz. Mike enjoyed numerous Seekonk victories with drivers like Eddie St. Angelo, Vinny Annarummo and Mike Christopher Sr.; now Justin wants to add to his family's legacy at the track with JMA's first win. Johnson is focused on not only helping JMA secure a Seekonk checkered flag, but also on validating his talent to the rest of the Modified Tour field. Prevailing at Monadnock in Ole Blue last year was a milestone moment, but Johnson knows he can accomplish so much more. 'I don't want to be known as the guy who just won one [Modified Tour] race as a fluke,' Johnson said. 'If I could go win two or three Tour races, I think it would solidify that [Monadnock] wasn't luck. The No. 07 is overdue for a win. They've been super strong everywhere they go, so I'd like to do that for them, as well.' With their chemistry continuing to grow every week, Johnson and JMA are ready to make a statement in their second Modified Tour race together this weekend by earning a victory in front of their hometown crowd.
