Nine people are dead after a Massachusetts assisted living facility caught fire Sunday night. Elderly residents rushed to their windows to scream and beg for help as smoke filled the hallways.

“I thought I was dead,” said resident Loraine Ferrara, who was pulled Sunday night out of her bathroom window. “I thought I was going to meet my maker.”

It was impossible to get to the exit door through the blinding smoke, Ferrara told CNN affiliate WCVB. “I’d never seen anything like it in my life. I couldn’t breathe.”

Victims hung out windows at the three-story Gabriel House, begging to be rescued, Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon told reporters outside the facility.

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Officials with the firefighters’ union later argued that understaffing may have made it harder to rescue reside

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