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🥵 Hot, with highs in the 90s. Sunset is at 8:18 p.m.

Today we have more information about how staff numbers may have affected Fall River’s response to a fire at the Gabriel House assisted living facility. The people who died there on Sunday are: Rui Albernaz, 64; Ronald Codega, 61; Margaret Duddy, 69; Robert King, 78; Kim Mackin, 71; Richard Rochon, 78; and Eleanor Willett, 86. You can learn more about some of their lives here. The local district attorney’s office has not yet released the names of two more people, a 70-year-old woman and a 77-year-old man, because they had not yet notified their families.

Fires and other emergencies are especially hard in assisted living facilities and nursing homes, where residents might not be able to get themselves to safety in time.

John Ford, an elder law attorney and part of Dignity Alliance, said it’s something he worries about too. His sister lives on the third floor of an assisted living facility.

“The first question I will ask her is, ‘have you had a fire drill since you’ve been there?’” Ford told GBH’s Meghan Smith. “I think everybody in the state who has an [assisted living] resident is asking the same questions.”

Rebecca Morris, who lives in an apartment building for seniors and people with disabilities in Carlisle, told Meghan she suggests reaching out to firefighters’ non-emergency line proactively.

“I’m really lucky to live in a town with a fire department that is as good as this one is,” Morris said. “I think one important thing for people with disabilities is to know where you are, know your local fire department and make sure they know you.”

Four Things to Know

1. A group of Massachusetts lawmakers want to address differences in health and medical care across the state — differences that sometimes cut life expectancies shorter over the span of just a few miles between richer neighborhoods and poorer ones. 

If it passes, the legislation would require state officials to identify ways to bring more doctors to areas with greater need, open a state Office of Health Equity to track data on health disparities, require insurance companies to reimburse for language interpreters in health care and for community health workers and expand MassHealth eligibility to people currently ineligible due to their immigration status.

2. Have you recently received a weird-looking text or strange-sounding call claiming to be from a local police department or sheriff’s office, warning that you’ll be arrested for failing to pay a fine or appear in a court case you’ve never heard of? It’s a scam, Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian said. His office got 59 complaints about scam calls in June, and one person sent the scammers more than $1,700.

“No legitimate law enforcement agency will ever threaten arrest over the phone, via text or email, or demand you pay a fine using one of these means,” Koutoujian said in a statement. “Disconnect right away, don’t click on any links and never provide any personal or financial information.”

3. About one in 10 workers in Massachusetts speaks limited English, and state officials would like to better support them, Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Lauren Jones said. Yesterday she announced $10 million to support English classes.

“We have an obligation to unlock this talent, to become great contributors to our workforce,” Jones told GBH’s Trajan Warren. “Some individuals who are already part of our workforce, we wanna make sure that we give them the tools to up-skill and grow and be even more productive.”

4. A storage space in Worcester’s Union Station has been turned into five new commercial kitchens, where people who want to go into the restaurant business can nurture their fledgling eateries. They can use the Worcester Regional Food Hub in exchange for a $30 monthly fee and $20 an hour, less than most commercial kitchens charge.

“I don’t think there’s any chance we would be doing this if this kind of facility didn’t exist,” said Evan Solomonides, who along with his business partner Duaynet Spinola Garcia started Cuban Tapas To Go.

Did Fall River have enough firefighters for the Gabriel House fire?

As fire began spreading through the Gabriel House assisted living facility in Fall River Sunday night, only two of the city’s 10 fire trucks had four firefighters on duty as the National Fire Protection Association recommends. The other eight trucks had three people apiece on duty.

In the day after the fire — which killed nine people, injured 30 and left dozens displaced — firefighters and union leaders said eight more firefighters on duty would have made a difference, GBH’s Liz Neisloss reports. 

“We respect the role of national and local union leadership in advocating for its members and for public safety,” Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan said. “We also recognize that any large-scale emergency brings with it a range of complex emotions and legitimate questions.”

The National Fire Protection Association’s guidelines do offer room for adjustment, director Curt Floyd said. He said cities and towns should consider their populations and risk factors when they decide how many firefighters to employ.

In 2010, a National Institute of Standards and Technology study found that fire crews of four were able to complete a series of on-the-job tasks 30% faster than two-person crews and 25% faster than three-person crews.

“At the end of the day, had that department been fully staffed, like say the neighboring city New Bedford, they would have had eight more firefighters on scene,'' said Ed Kelly, president of the International Fire Fighters Association. “That would have been eight more people; firefighters throwing ground ladders, rescuing people out of that 2nd or 3rd floor of that building.“

Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said it’s impossible to definitively say whether more firefighters on scene would have been able to rescue some of the nine residents who died. But the department’s current funding model relies on fewer firefighters working more hours, he said, calling it “working our firefighters to the bone.”

“I can’t disagree with the union’s assertion that if there were more firefighters there that we could have done things more efficiently and better,'' Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said Tuesday. “I don’t know if it would have saved lives. That’s speculation.”

Read Liz Neisloss’ full reporting here.