Shirley Chambra was outside smoking a cigarette when she saw sparks and then flames at her home: the Gabriel House assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts.

Officials are continuing to investigate the cause of a fire at a Massachusetts assisted living facility that killed nine people and critically injured another.

Calls to 911 reporting a fire at an assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, began coming in shortly after 9:30 p.m. Sunday, marking the start of a prolonged emergency response to rescue the roughly 70 people who lived there,