9 dead in fire at Fall River senior living facility. ‘I was just hoping I was going to make it,’ resident says.

FALL RIVER — Some screamed for help as the flames and smoke got closer. Others smashed windows, desperate for a rescue. Firefighters exhausted themselves dragging and carrying mostly elderly residents to safety.

One resident considered jumping to safety. “I was just hoping I was going to make it,” said Neal Beck, 78, who was rescued through a third-floor window.

When Frank O’Reagan, a Fall River fire captain, arrived on the scene at the Gabriel House assisted living facility Sunday night, he was told people were still trapped on the third floor. He went in without an air tank, and kicked in a door.

In some rooms he entered, he only found bodies.

The blaze that tore through a part of the facility here Sunday night sent black smoke billowing through apartment units filled with resident