The ashes were barely cool at the Gabriel House assisted living facility in Fall River — the day after a horrific late-night fire led to 10 deaths of elderly and physically infirm people — when members of the firefighters’ union stood before the building to talk about the price of safety.

Edward Kelly, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, lambasted the city of Fall River for not staffing all its fire companies to national standards of four firefighters per piece of apparatus.

By National Fire Protection Agency standards, Fall River was eight firefighters short.

According to the union, the shorthanded fire companies were quickly overwhelmed having to rescue 70 elderly, often nonambulatory residents from the smoke-filled building. When rescue came for residents, it was sometimes in the form of off-duty firefighters who’d rushed to the scene without equipment — and even police officers who couldn’t stand by while trapped people shouted for help.

Read more at heraldnews.com.