Hello, I'd like to offer my sympathy to those researchers in the Fall River area who have been directly affected by the "fatal fire" which has just occurred ! I have just read on the Azores List that several of the researchers there had family who were burned or injured in the fire or suffered smoke inhalation - including babies ! From watching the News this week, I have seen people with the same surnames of members of my friend, Bob's extended family ! We have no way of knowing whether they are distantly related to Bob, but they could be somehow connected ! PACHECO, CARVALHO, MEDEIROS, PEREIRA / PERRY, MOURA, etc. ! If any researchers in Bristol County had relatives who originally lived in the Cambridge and Somerville area, perhaps you would consider posting a query on the MA and MAMiddle Lists ! Betty (near Lowell, MA) P.S. I'm curious whether the "Shriner's Burn Institute" is the only place where "serious burn victims" are brought in eastern MA ! http://www.shrinershq.org/hospitals/burninst/index.html

> P.S. I'm curious whether the "Shriner's Burn Institute" is the only > place > where "serious burn victims" are brought in eastern MA ! > Burn victims from Fall River would be sent to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. I don't know about Shriners. I've pasted a Globe article you might want. It mentions a victim now in RIH. Carrie Carrie Tucker, Librarian East Bridgewater High School Library 11 Plymouth Street East Bridgewater, Massachusetts 02333 508-378-5841 ctucker@sailsinc.org In Portuguese neighborhood, grief caused by fire touches all By Ray Henry, Associated Press Writer | June 16, 2006 FALL RIVER, Mass. --When firefighters found Emily Carvalho's body in a Portuguese social hall gutted by fire, one longtime friend wasn't shocked to learn where she fell. Overwhelmed by the flames and thick smoke that killed four women, Carvalho, 80, apparently collapsed in the club's kitchen clutching a cousin and a rosary, her son said. She died in the room where she once fed her own immediate family and a second, even larger one: her immigrant neighbors from St. Michael's Island in the Azores. "She was the kitchen," said Maria Jacob, 51, who also immigrated from St. Michael's and watched her injured neighbors flee in panic from the burning club Wednesday night. The fire erupted during a prayer service and proved cruel for many reasons, especially because it cut across so many family lines in this working class coastal city about 20 miles southeast of Providence, R.I. Almost half of Fall River's 92,000 residents claim Portuguese heritage, many families came from the same Atlantic island, once worked in the same textile mills and attended the same churches. "What makes this an incredible tragedy is these hardworking Fall River families were gathering to celebrate their lives, their culture, their spirit, their faith," said Mayor Ed Lambert. Members of Our Lady of Light Society, a club Carvalho and her late husband helped found, were gathering for a prayer service that customarily precedes an annual religious festival. Candles were being lit around a shrine to the Holy Ghost when the fire started, and it quickly spread to the crepe paper and satin decorations ringing the room. Some society members tried to put out the flames with water, a fire extinguisher and by stomping on them, but the blaze grew too rapidly, state Fire Marshal Stephen Coan said. Four people were killed and 12 were injured. Thirty people were in the three-story building when the fire broke out. The building has apartments on the two floors above the social club. "They didn't have a chance," Bristol County District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. said. Michelle Pacheco, 24, was holding her 1 1/2-year-old niece on her lap when the fire started. She said a wave of heat hit her in the face, blistering her skin. "It was a lot of fire," she said. "A lot of heat. The whole room was black. We had trouble breathing." Pacheco grabbed her niece and ran for a door, but it was stuck. Eventually, someone kicked it down, and people rushed out, she said. "I thought we were all going to die," said Pacheco, was hospitalized overnight with burns. Her niece, Autumn Silvio, was in good condition Thursday at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence. Emily Carvalho's son, Lenny, was helping erect a tent in the club's rear parking lot to prepare for the festival. He said he heard people screaming from inside. Seconds later, he could see flames on the walls and smoke coming from the windows. The heat seemed to jam a rear door that Carvalho said he and other men eventually broke open. He said they smashed windows and shouted for those inside to follow the sound of their voices. "We tried to save everybody, but we only got one through the window," he said. That woman was 62-year-old Maria Costa, who was in intensive care at Rhode Island Hospital. Her 31-year-old daughter, Christine Costa, died in the fire, according to Christine's uncle, Manuel Costa, president of Our Lady of Light Association. Another victim, Isabella Raposa, 67, was attending the service with her husband of 50 years, John Raposa, her nephew Joe Pavao said. After finding a door stuck, John Raposa broke a window with his fist, climbed out and tried to pull his wife through, but she slipped from his grasp, Pavao said. The identity of the fourth woman killed wasn't immediately available. Authorities haven't released the names of the dead and injured. "In the midst of the tragic losses in last night's fire we remember that the Portuguese community in Fall River has always drawn great strength from faith and family," Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley, who once served as bishop of the Fall River Roman Catholic Diocese, said in a statement Thursday that offered prayers for the victims and the grieving. "The people of Fall River remain close to my heart, be assured of my prayers and remembrance at Mass," he said.