For weeks at a time, assisted living residents in wheelchairs on the top level of Gabriel House couldn’t leave their floor, trapped by a broken elevator that management wasn’t in any hurry to fix. Because they couldn’t make it downstairs to the communal dining room,

A woman hospitalized after the Gabriel House fire in Fall River on Sunday died after she was taken off life support, her family confirmed Friday.

Assisted living centers are rare in Mass, but many families still don’t know what they offer or how they differ from other elder care facilities.

The family of a resident at the Gabriel House assisted living facility has retained a law firm to investigate the circumstances leading up to the deadly Sunday fire that killed nine people and left dozens injured.

A dancer who loved his community and the mother of a retired local police officer were just two of the nine killed in the Gabriel House assisted living fire on July 13. Obituaries and funeral plans for two of the victims were announced as of Friday, July 18.

Questions and finger-pointing have increased in the days since a fire at a Massachusetts assisted-living facility killed nine and hurt dozens.

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.

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.