Adam Bass

masslive.com

(TNS)

In an effort to prevent tragedies such as last year’s Gabriel House fire in Fall River, the state has updated its code to address a weakness exposed by the deadly fire.

The Massachusetts Board of Fire Prevention Regulations approved new fire safety requirements Thursday, according to a statement from Gov. Maura Healey.

Under the updated fire code, sprinkler systems will be required to undergo annual checks to identify any recalled sprinkler heads, according to a press release from Healey’s office. Recalled sprinklers contributed to problems during the Gabriel House fire.

Property owners will be required to notify their local fire department if they have recalled equipment and to replace it. Local fire departments can require additional fire protection measures until the recalled equipment has been replaced, the press release reads.

The Massachusetts Board of Fire Prevention Regulations voted Thursday to include the new requirements in the next edition of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Fire Safety Code, expected early next year, according to the press release. The changes were pushed heavily by Fall River Fire Captain Joshua Hetzler following the Gabriel House fire, which killed 10 residents in July 2025.

The fire was Massachusetts’ deadliest in more than 40 years.

“The Gabriel House fire was a heartbreaking tragedy that devastated families and the Fall River community. We owe it to those families to do everything we can to prevent something like this from happening again,” Healey said in a statement. “That’s why we’ve taken action to strengthen fire safety and emergency preparedness at assisted living residences, and these new requirements will help protect even more people across Massachusetts. I’m grateful to the Fall River firefighters who brought these recommendations forward and to the Board for taking action. We will continue working to strengthen safety, prevent future tragedies and protect our residents.”

In addition to the new sprinkler requirements, the board made other changes to the fire code.

These changes include, according to the press release:

• a ban on welding, grinding and other hot work activities when winds exceed 15 mph,
• requiring workers to renew their hot work safety training every three years,
• consolidating permitting and certification requirements to make them easier to understand and follow,
• bringing Massachusetts’s fire code into closer alignment with national standards while maintaining state-specific fire safety protections.

Hetzler told MassLive Thursday he expects the new rules to go into effect early next year.

“Today is a great step towards making that happen,” he said about the new rules.
“The culmination of two years of work by the Board of Fire Prevention Regulations.”

Hetzler previously told MassLive that the Gabriel House fire exposed a major gap in fire safety codes: no one is actively checking for recalled sprinkler heads.

Under current National Fire Protection Association standards, the legal responsibility for identifying and replacing recalled sprinkler heads — and sprinkler maintenance in general — lies with property owners, not contractors or inspectors.

Under the new rules, property owners are now required to make sure any recalled sprinklers are properly replaced.

“The Gabriel House residents and their families have not left our thoughts in the 15 months since that tragic night in 2025,” State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine, who sits on the BFPR and voted to include the sprinkler provisions, said in a statement. “Nothing can fill the void left by their loved ones, but I hope this makes clear to them that we are committed to saving other families from enduring the same heartbreak.”

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