Elderly residents – some in wheelchairs and some dependent on oxygen tanks – were blinded by deadly smoke as they tried to escape an assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, which caught fire Sunday evening.

River firefighters arrived at the scene Sunday to find some of the trapped residents screaming for help out of the windows.

A fire broke out at about 9:30 p.m. on Sunday a Fall River assisted living residence, which drew nearly 50 firefighters to the scene and left a vulnerable population calling for help from their windows.