Governor Maura Healey visited the fire scene at 261 Oliver St. Monday morning, announcing a full investigation into the cause of fire and the response.

Several residents who’d been evacuated to the Timao Center, a shelter set up as a reunification site, said they broke windows to try to escape acrid smoke after alarms went off.

FALL RIVER — Residents of the Gabriel House described heavy smoke, chaos, and panic that overwhelmed the assisted living facility Sunday night before they were rescued from the blaze that left nine people dead and dozens more injured.

Here’s what residents told the Globe about what happened Sunday night.

Man describes breaking window to escape

Monday morning outside the Timao Center at 371 Bay St., Gabriel House residents tried to make sense of what had happened the previous night.

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Michael Pimentel, 72, who has lived at the facility for eight years, said he was dozing off Sunday night when the fire broke out.

It was “pitch black, smoke up the yin-yang,” he said.

When the alarms went off, Pimentel, who has a congenital condition with his left hand and has two prosthetic legs, went into a bathroom, he said.

He stood up and tried to open a window, but it only opened a few inches, he said.

“I could only get it open that much, and I’m screaming at the firemen to help me out and other people. I finally got fed up with that and I stood up and I grabbed the top of that window and I ripped it right off the hinges,” he added.

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“Then I took the top window, brought that down, and ripped that one off. Then I banged out the screen to give me plenty of room for them to take me out,” Pimentel said.

He said he saw flames 10 feet tall at one point.

“It was pretty traumatic,” he said.

People were yelling, banging on windows to get out, resident says

Some displaced residents stood outside the Timao Center smoking cigarettes Monday, and workers from the assisted living facility hugged them or asked them how they were doing.

Shirley Cambra, 75, who has lived at Gabriel House for six years, was outside sitting in a walker smoking with another resident.

Cambra said that around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, she was outside with four other residents at Gabriel House.

She said smoke was everywhere and fire was shooting out of an AC unit.

“All these lights are flashing inside, and people are banging [on the windows] wanting to get out,” Cambra said. “They’re yelling and I couldn’t help. I kept going ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute.’”

Cambra said she doesn’t know who the nine people are who died.

“I feel terrible,” she said. “There’s no way we could’ve helped them.”

“It was just a disaster,” she continued. “Worse thing I ever saw in my life.”

‘I was just hoping I was going to make it,’ man says

Around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, firefighters pulled Neal Beck from his third-floor window at Gabriel House.

“I was just hoping I was going to make it,” Beck, 78, said on Monday outside of the Timao Center. “I was thinking about jumping out the bathroom window, but thank God I didn’t because it’s too high.”

Beck was in bed when the fire alarms went off. When he opened the door to the hallway, he found that the “whole place is full of smoke,” he said.

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“I went out and I couldn’t see nothing and shut that door. That smoke was horrible stuff,” he said.

Beck said his room smelled of burning rugs and plastic.

Upon hearing that nine people had died, Beck shook his head in disbelief.

“Oh my God, that’s outrageous,” he said. “I’m totally shocked. It’s unreal.”

Beck said he has lived at Gabriel House for about five years and described it as “nice” and “cordial.”

“Thank God God was on my side and I was able to get out,” Beck said.

Ava Berger can be reached at ava.berger@globe.com. Follow her @Ava_Berger_. Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com. Claire Thornton can be reached at claire.thornton@globe.com. Follow Claire on X @claire_thornto.