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WASHINGTON (AP) — Education Secretary Linda McMahon is expected to move quickly now that the Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to continue unwinding her department.

The justices on Monday paused a lower court order that had halted nearly 1,400 layoffs and had called into question the legality of President Donald Trump’s plan to outsource the department’s operations to other agencies.

Now, Trump and McMahon are free to execute the layoffs and break up the department’s work among other federal agencies. Trump had campaigned on closing the department, and McMahon has said the department has one “final mission” to turn over its power to the states.

“The Federal Government has been running our Education System into the ground, but we are going to turn it all around by giving the Power back to the PEOPLE,” Trump said late Monday in a post on Truth Social. “Thank you to the United States Supreme Court!”

Department lawyers have already previewed McMahon’s next steps in court filings.

What happens with student loans, civil rights cases

Trump and McMahon have acknowledged only Congress has authority to close the Education Department fully, but both have suggested its core functions could be parceled out to different federal agencies.

Among the most important decisions is where to put management of federal student loans, a $1.6 trillion portfolio affecting nearly 43 million borrowers.

Trump in March suggested the Small Business Administration would take on federal student loans, but a June court filing indicated the Treasury Department is expected to take over the work. The Education Department said it had been negotiating a contract with Treasury but paused discussions when the court intervened. That work is now expected to proceed in coming days.

Under a separate arrangement, nine Education Department workers already have been detailed to Treasury, according to a court filing.

The department had also recently struck a deal to outsource the management of several grant programs for workforce training and adult education to the Department of Labor. The Education Department agreed to send $2.6 billion to Labor to oversee grants, which are distributed to states to be passed down to schools and colleges.

Combining workforce training programs at Education and Labor would “provide a coordinated federal education and workforce system,” according to the agreement.

Additional agreements are expected to follow with other agencies. At her Senate confirmation hearing, McMahon suggested that enforcement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act could be handled by the Department of Health and Human Services. Civil rights work could be managed by the Justice Department, she said.

Democracy Forward, which represents plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said it will pursue “every legal option” to fight for children. The group’s federal court case is proceeding, but the Supreme Court’s emergency decision means the Education Department is allowed to downsize in the meantime.

“No court in the nation — not even the Supreme Court — has found that what the administration is doing is lawful,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of the group, in a statement.

Laying off staff

Trump campaigned on a promise to close the agency, and in March ordered it to be wound down “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.” McMahon had already started a dramatic downsizing, laying off about 1,400 workers.

Education Department employees targeted by the layoffs have been on paid leave since March, according to a union that represents some of the agency’s staff. The lower court order had prevented the department from fully terminating them, though none had been allowed to return to work, according to the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252. Without the lower court order, the workers would have been terminated in early June.

The absence of those staffers already had caused problems in the office that handles student loans, said Melanie Storey, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. College financial aid staffers reported delays and breakdowns in federal systems — such as an hours-long outage on StudentAid.gov the day after departmental layoffs. Communication with the Education Department eroded, Storey said.

“It is concerning that the Court is allowing the Trump administration to continue with its planned reduction in force, given what we know about the early impact of those cuts on delivering much-needed financial assistance to students seeking a postsecondary education,” Storey said.

Gutting the Education Department will hinder the government’s ability to enforce civil rights laws, especially for girls, students with disabilities, LGBTQ+ students and students of color, said Gaylynn Burroughs, vice president at the National Women’s Law Center. Laid-off staff in the Office of Civil Rights were handling thousands of cases.

“Without enough staff and resources, students will face more barriers to educational opportunity and have fewer places to turn to when their rights are violated,” Burroughs said in a statement. “This is part of a coordinated plan by the Trump administration to dismantle the federal government and roll back hard-won civil rights protections.”

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AP education writers Annie Ma and Cheyanne Mumphrey contributed reporting.

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Starbucks is requiring some remote workers to return to its headquarters and increasing the number of days that corporate employees are required to work in an office.

In a letter to employees posted on Monday, Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol said corporate employees would need to be in the office four days a week starting in early October instead of three days a week.

The Seattle-based company said that all corporate “people leaders” must be based in either Seattle or Toronto within 12 months. That is a change from February, when it required vice presidents to relocate to Seattle or Toronto.

Starbucks said individual employees working under those leaders would not be asked to relocate. But the company said all hiring for future roles and lateral moves will require employees to be based in Seattle or Toronto.

“We are reestablishing our in-office culture because we do our best work when we’re together. We share ideas more effectively, creatively solve hard problems, and move much faster,” Niccol wrote in the letter.

Niccol said affected workers who choose not to relocate will be eligible for a one-time voluntary exit program with a cash payment.

While many workers grew to enjoy working from home during the pandemic, the call for workers to return to offices full-time has been growing over the past year. Major employers such as Amazon, AT&T and the federal government have required employees to work in company sites five days per week. Competition for fully-remote jobs is fierce.

Starbucks spokeswoman Lori Torgerson said she didn’t have a count of employees who are currently working as “people leaders” or are working remotely. Starbucks has 16,000 corporate support employees worldwide, but that includes coffee roasters and warehouse staff.

Niccol was not required to relocate to Seattle when he was hired to lead Starbucks last August. Instead, the company said it would help him set up an office near his home in Newport Beach, California, and would give him the use of a corporate jet to commute to Seattle.

Since then, Niccol has bought a home in Seattle and is frequently seen at the company’s headquarters, Torgerson said.

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AP Business Writer Cathy Bussewitz contributed from New York.

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — For a second straight day, rain forecasts hampered the search Monday for people still missing after deadly floods pummeled Texas, as officials made plans to drain reservoirs in the search for victims and lowered the number of people they said remain missing.

While some official crews resumed the search along the Guadalupe River in and around Kerrville in Kerr County, others held off or were ordered to stop because of worries about the forecast and the possibility of more flooding.

And local officials, who have faced mounting scrutiny over a perceived lack of action and warnings ahead of the July Fourth storm that killed at least 132 people, complained they have received threats to their safety.

The first pause in search efforts due to the weather came Sunday in Texas Hill Country, where the soil is still primed for enhanced water runoff.

The number of missing

At a news conference Monday, state officials said 101 people remain missing, including 97 in the Kerrville area. The other four were swept away in other counties.

That is a significant drop from the more than 160 people officials had previously said were unaccounted for in Kerr County alone, with 10 more missing in neighboring areas. State officials did not immediately respond to emailed requests for clarity on the big change in the number of missing.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suggested it has been difficult to pin down a number. Campers, residents or people who registered at RV parks or hotels are easier to account for, he said. Others may have been reported missing by a friend, family member or coworker.

“Even though we are reporting 97 people missing, there is no certainty that all 97 of those people were swept away by the storm,” Abbott said.

‘Trailer after trailer after trailer’ swept away

Texas Hill Country is a popular destination for tourists where campers seek out spots along the river amid the rolling hills. Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said during a commissioners’ meeting Monday that it’s been difficult to determine exactly how many tourists were in the area when the flooding occurred.

“We’ve heard accounts of trailer after trailer after trailer being swept into the river with families in the them. Can’t find the trailers,” Kelly said. “It’s what we don’t know. We don’t know how many of them there are.”

Kelly said he’d been told of one trailer that was found “completely covered in gravel” 27 feet (8.2 meters) below the surface of the river. He said sonar crews have been searching the river and local lakes and more are expected to arrive.

Commissioner Don Harris said officials plan to drain two reservoir lakes on the river.

“Who knows how many out there are completely covered,” Harris said.

The search

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Urban Search and Rescue teams fully resumed operations on Monday, said Obed Frometa, FEMA Blue Incident Support Team information officer.

Levi Bizzell, a spokesperson for the Ingram Volunteer Fire Department, which has been organizing about 200 searchers, said the department suspended operations for the day on Monday because of the expected rain in Kerr County.

“Everybody here wants to be out there working,” Bizzell said. “They literally come in in the morning whether they are tired or not, and they just want to get out there and work because they want to find closure for these families.”

Kerr County meanwhile advised all volunteers to leave the river area and move to higher ground, saying only those teams working under the direction of Kerr County Emergency Operations Center Unified Command were permitted in the response zone.

Members of the volunteer Lone Star Search and Recovery group said authorities pulled them off recovery operations on Sunday due to the rain, so they spent Monday helping clear debris from a badly damaged neighborhood instead.

“They don’t want us out there right now until it clears up,” said Aron Gutierrez, a volunteer who came from Fort Worth.

‘Playing a blame game’

In Kerrville, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Austin, local officials have come under scrutiny over whether residents were adequately warned about the rising water on July 4.

Authorities in Kerrville went door-to-door to some homes early Sunday warning that flooding was again possible, and pushed phone alerts to area residents.

Kerr County commissioners asked the public for their patience as the search and cleanup continues. Commissioner Rich Paces said during a meeting Monday morning that he has received death threats.

“They’re just playing a blame game,” Paces said.

During a special Kerrville City Council meeting, council member Brenda Hughes also complained of threats to city officials and staff, which she did not detail, and called for increased security at City Hall.

The July Fourth flood

Just before daybreak on the Fourth of July, destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the Guadalupe River, washing away homes and vehicles. Crews in helicopters, boats and drones have been searching for victims.

The floods laid waste to the Hill Country region. The riverbanks and hills of Kerr County are filled with vacation cabins, youth camps and campgrounds, including Camp Mystic, the century-old, all-girls Christian summer camp.

Located in a low-lying area along the Guadalupe River in a region known as flash flood alley, Camp Mystic lost at least 27 campers and counselors.

The flood was far more severe than the 100-year event envisioned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, experts said, and moved so quickly in the middle of the night that it caught many off guard in a county that lacked a warning system.

More rain

Areas that were hit by the July Fourth floods were forecast to get more rain Monday.

The Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas, where Camp Mystic is located, had risen to almost 11 feet (3 meters) by Monday afternoon, resulting in minor flooding, The river was expected to rise another 2 feet (61 centimeters) by Monday evening, causing moderate flooding, according to the National Weather Service’s Austin/San Antonio office.

The weather service had not received any reports of flooding of homes or roads as of Monday afternoon.

A series of thunderstorms that inundated areas west of Kerr County weakened as they passed through the area and there wasn’t much rain by late Monday afternoon, according to the weather service.

From Sunday night and Monday morning, southwestern Kerr County received up to 4.5 inches (11 centimeters) of rain. The Hunt area received about 2 inches (5 centimeters).

Swift water rescue teams have already been sent to Uvalde, Del Rio and Concan in anticipation of possible flooding in those communities on the Frio River, Nim Kidd, Texas emergency operations chief, said during the Monday news conference.

___ Vertuno and Lathan contributed to this report from Austin. Associated Press reporters Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York; Juan A. Lozano in Houston, Michael Weissenstein in Dobbs Ferry, New York; and Jeff Martin in Kennesaw, Georgia, also contributed to this report.

A retired Army officer who worked as a civilian for the Air Force has pleaded guilty to conspiring to transmit classified information about Russia’s war with Ukraine on a foreign online dating platform.

David Slater, 64, who had top secret clearance at his job at the U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, pleaded guilty to a single count before a federal magistrate judge in Omaha on Thursday. In exchange for his guilty plea, two other counts were dropped.

Slater remains free pending his sentencing, which is scheduled for Oct. 8. Prosecutors and his lawyers agreed that he should serve between five years and 10 months and seven years and three months in prison, and the government will recommend a term at the low end of that range. The charge carries a statutory maximum of 10 years behind bars.

U.S. District Judge Brian Buescher will ultimately decide whether to accept the plea agreement and will determine Slater’s sentence.

“I conspired to willfully communicate national defense information to an unauthorized person,” Slater said in a handwritten note on his petition to change his plea.

Slater had access to some of the country’s most closely held secrets, John Eisenberg, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.

“Access to classified information comes with great responsibility,” said Lesley Woods, the U.S. attorney for Nebraska, said in the same statement. “David Slater failed in his duty to protect this information by willingly sharing National Defense Information with an unknown online personality despite having years of military experience that should have caused him to be suspicious of that person’s motives.”

Slater retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel in 2020 and worked in a classified space at the base from around August 2021 until around April 2022. He attended briefings about the Russia-Ukraine war that were classified up to top secret, court documents say. He was arrested in March of 2024.

In his plea agreement, he acknowledged that he conspired to transmit classified information that he learned from those briefings via the foreign dating website’s messaging platform to an unnamed coconspirator, who claimed to be a woman living in Ukraine. The information, classified as secret, pertained to military targets and Russian military capabilities, according to the plea agreement.

“Defendant knew and had reason to believe that such information could be used to the injury of the United States or the advantage of a foreign nation,” the agreement states.

According to the original indictment, the coconspirator regularly asked Slater for classified information. She called him, “my secret informant love!” in one message. She closed another by saying, “You are my secret agent. With love.” In another, she wrote, “Dave, I hope tomorrow NATO will prepare a very pleasant ‘surprise’ for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin! Will you tell me?”

Court documents don’t identify the coconspirator, or say whether she was working for Ukraine or Russia. They also don’t identify the dating platform.

Amy Donato, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Omaha, said Monday that she couldn’t provide that information. Slater’s attorney, Stuart Dornan, didn’t immediately return a call seeking further details.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. (AP) — A wildfire that tore through a historic Grand Canyon lodge and raged out of control Monday had been allowed to burn for days before erupting over the weekend, raising scrutiny over the National Park Service’s decision not to aggressively attack the fire right away.

The wildfire along the canyon’s more isolated North Rim, where most visitors don’t venture, was burning quickly with no containment, fire officials said. No injuries had been reported, but more than 70 structures were lost, including a visitors center and several cabins.

At first, the fire didn’t raise alarms after igniting from a lightning strike on July 4. Four days later, the Park Service said the fire was being allowed to burn to benefit the land and fire crews were keeping close watch.

“There are no threats to infrastructure or public safety at this time,” the park said on Facebook.

Then three days later, on Friday, fire officials and the park service sent out warnings to “evacuate immediately” as the fire grew by nearly eight times within a day to more than 1.4 square miles (3.6 square kilometers).

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs called for a federal investigation into the park service’s handling of the fire.

“The federal government chose to manage that fire as a controlled burn during the driest, hottest part of the Arizona summer,” the governor said in a social media post Sunday.

She will be meeting with leadership in the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior soon to learn more about the decisions made in managing the wildfire, Hobbs’ spokesperson Christian Slater said in an email.

Authorities first used a “confine and contain” strategy but shifted to aggressive suppression as the fire — one of two that firefighters are dealing with on the North Rim — rapidly grew because of hot temperatures, low humidity and strong wind gusts, fire officials said.

The Associated Press left phone and email messages Monday with a park service spokesperson seeking comment about how the fire was managed.

Historic lodge destroyed

The fire destroyed the Grand Canyon Lodge, the only lodging inside the park’s North Rim, along with employee housing and a wastewater treatment plant, park Superintendent Ed Keable said Sunday.

Park officials have closed access for the rest of the year to the North Rim, a less popular area that draws only about 10% of the Grand Canyon’s millions of annual visitors.

Hikers in the area were evacuated and rafters on the Colorado River, which snakes through the canyon, were told to bypass Phantom Ranch, an outpost of cabins and dormitories. Trails to the area from the canyon’s North and South rims also were closed.

From the air, plumes of black smoke could be seen rising above the canyon walls and haze filled parts of the park. From the park’s South Rim, visitors took pictures on Monday of the smoke blanketing the canyon in the distance.

The fire flared up Saturday night, fueled by high winds. Firefighters managed to make progress, using aerial fire retardant drops near the lodge before they had to pull back because of a chlorine gas leak at the water treatment plant, the park service said.

Hikers also were evacuated over concern that the poisonous, heavier-than-air gas could sink downhill, into the canyon.

U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego sent a letter Monday to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum asking among other things how the administration planned to track wildfire decision-making under a recent executive order to consolidate federal firefighting forces into a single program.

Fire season in the Western US

Across the West, about three dozen fires were burning uncontained and another 80 fires were being managed to clear out vegetation that has clogged the landscape, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

So far this year, nearly 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares) have burned. That’s slightly below the 10-year average, the center said Monday.

A wildfire burning in southwestern Colorado closed Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and forced evacuations nearby. It had burned about 5.7 square miles (14.8 square kilometers) as of Monday. The fire was started by lightning Thursday on the park’s south rim, a dramatic, deep gorge carved by the Gunnison River.

Fire officials said the brush and trees were very dry and there was only a minimal chance for rain in the coming days. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued a disaster declaration because of the fire and others in western Colorado.

Along the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, the Dragon Bravo Fire that destroyed the lodge and other buildings spread to nearly 9 square miles (23 square kilometers) Monday.

The White Sage Fire also grew significantly over the past day, now having charred 77 square miles (199 square kilometers) of terrain with no containment. Officials reported progress in battling the fire.

The fires came three years after two errant prescribed fires conducted by the U.S. Forest Service sparked the Hermit’s Peak-Calf Canyon Fire, which burned more than 530 square miles (1,373 square kilometers) of the Rocky Mountain foothills and destroyed hundreds of homes.

History of the Grand Canyon Lodge

The Grand Canyon Lodge, known for its huge ponderosa beams, massive limestone facade and a bronze statue of a donkey named “Brighty the Burro,” was perched on the edge of the North Rim and offered sweeping views of the canyon.

“It was like you’re looking at this movie all the time,” said Erik Ammerlann, who lived in Arizona for most of his adult life and stayed at the lodge nearly 10 years ago. “You’re really just one with nature.”

Caren Carney was staying there last week with her husband, parents and 12-year-old son when a park ranger knocked on their door Thursday and told them to evacuate.

She was heartbroken Sunday to hear that such a “magical place” had burned down. After evacuating, the family from Georgia went to the South Rim and could see the blaze across the canyon.

“I’m so glad we got to have one final look at it in the present before it was lost,” Carney said.

Aramark, the company that operated the lodge, said all employees and guests were safely evacuated.

An original lodge burned down from a kitchen fire in 1932, four years after construction was completed, according to the Grand Canyon Historical Society. The redesigned lodge using the original stonework opened in 1937.

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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press reporters Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona; Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles; Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyoming; Christopher Keller and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Colleen Slevin in Denver; and Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this report.

FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — Flames roared through an assisted-living facility in Massachusetts, killing nine people and trapping residents inside, including some who leaned out of windows and screamed for help, authorities said Monday. At least 30 people were hurt.

A firefighters union said inadequate staffing hindered the response to the blaze and contributed to the death toll, though the mayor criticized that characterization, and the fire chief suggested no number of first responders would have been enough. Meanwhile, several residents who praised firefighters and police for heroic rescue efforts said staff members did little to help.

“They didn’t knock on one door,” Robert Cabral said. “They just ran.”

Firefighters responded to the Gabriel House facility in Fall River, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Boston, at about 9:50 p.m. Sunday and were met with heavy smoke and flames at the front of the building. The Bristol County district attorney’s office said in a statement that the fire’s cause “does not appear to be suspicious at this time.” Its origin remains under investigation, authorities said.

Lorraine Ferrara, one of about 70 residents at the facility, awoke to a neighbor pounding on her door. She tried to make her way through the smoke in the hallway but retreated to her room as the sprinkler system shot hot water onto her back.

As her room filed with smoke, Ferrara opened her window and yelled. A firefighter broke the window and carried her down the ladder, she said.

“I really thought I was going to die,” she said. “I thought there was no way out.”

That fear mixed with anger as she watched two employees run from the building.

“They left us alone and ran out into the parking lot,” she said. “I was hanging out the window — ‘Help! Help!’ and they just kept running.”

The dead ranged in age from 61 to 86, authorities said. The Bristol County district attorney’s office identified seven of the deceased as Rui Albernaz, 64; Ronald Codega, 61; Margaret Duddy, 69; Robert King, 78; Kim Mackin, 71; Richard Rochon, 78; and Eleanor Willett, 86. The office said a 70-year-old woman and 77-year-old man were still pending notification of family.

Mackin’s nephew, Austin Mackin, in an emailed statement from family members, described his aunt as “gifted beyond words.”

“We will all miss Kimmy,” the statement read. “Beyond being exceptionally kind, few knew that she was a brilliant musician.”

She received a full ride scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music and after graduating, she toured around the world as first chair viola, the statement said. During the latter part of her career as an instrumentalist, she played in the Boston Philharmonic.

Gabriel House opened in 1999 and has 100 units, according to Massachusetts Executive Office of Aging and Independence. Its website promotes studio apartments “for those seniors who cannot afford the high end of assisted living” as well as group adult foster care within walking distance of shopping, restaurants and churches.

“If an emergency occurs, no matter the time, there will be someone ready to help,” the website states.

Dennis Etzkorn, the facility’s owner, declined to comment Monday, but officials said he was cooperating with what Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon called “a very extensive investigation.”

District Attorney Tom Quinn called the fire a “terrible tragedy” in a statement that also commended first responders “bringing many of the residents to safety while being confronted with very difficult circumstances.”

Firefighters union decries lack of staff, equipment

About 50 firefighters responded to the scene, including 30 who were off-duty. Police also helped break down doors and carried about a dozen residents to safety. Five injured firefighters were released from the hospital Monday.

Officials with the firefighters union said the closing of fire companies and cutbacks on staff have been a problem for decades.

If staffing had been at the nationally recommended level, eight more firefighters would have been at the scene, said Edward Kelly, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters union.

Capt. Frank O’Reagan said there was no breathing equipment available when he arrived, so he started going door to door on the third floor without an air tank until the smoke got to him.

O’Reagan’s brother and fellow firefighter Michael O’Reagan said he was shocked that 40 minutes after firefighters arrived, a large part of the building had not been searched.

“We did the best we could with what we had, and what we had was not enough,” said Michael O’Reagan, president of the Fall River firefighters union.

Mayor Paul Coogan said the fire department is staffed based on the recommendation from the fire chief.

“We staff the fire department at the number the chief asked for,” he said. “We’re not even 24 hours into this and that’s going to be a priority, not the families?”

Joe Alves, who lives several houses down from the facility, said he saw officials pulling bodies, people in wheelchairs and injured pets out of the building, with some pouring water bottles on burns.

“It was terrible,” he said, choking up slightly.

Clever Parra, who lives behind the facility, said he joined several other neighbors to help evacuate residents through the windows. The 40-year-old construction worker described going up a ladder and seeing a man inside attempting to open a window to escape the flames. After trying on his own, Parra turned to a firefighter to break the window.

The firefighter “sent the guy to me feet first and I take the guy out and bring him down,” he recalled.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey offered state assistance to the city’s mayor, condolences to the families of those who died and gratitude to first responders.

Brian Doherty, president of the Massachusetts Assisted Living Association, said state officials were working with long-term care facilities to find homes for displaced residents.

Paul Lanzikos, a former Massachusetts Secretary of Elder Affairs and co-founder of the advocacy group Dignity Alliance, said the group was concerned by what has been reported about the lack of fire drills, low number of staff for a highly dependent population and safety issues such as a broken elevator and air conditioners in the windows.

“It’s a terrible tragedy that should have never happened,” Lanzikos said.

City is one of the poorest in Massachusetts

With about 94,000 residents, Fall River is the state’s 10th-largest city and one of its poorest.

The blue-collar community in southern Massachusetts was once a global center for textile manufacturing, but it suffered population loss and economic hardship as the industry declined. Recent decades have seen some new development and investment, but the city has also been rocked by scandal. Former Mayor Jasiel Correia was convicted in a corruption trial and sentenced to six years in prison in 2021.

Survivors of the fire were ushered to a temporary housing center about half a mile (0.8 kilometers) from their former home, many of them in shock after losing most of their belongings.

Some broke down in tears, others threw out names — desperate to know who was still alive. Staffers handed out sandwiches, beverages and even canes for those who did not have time to grab their medical equipment in the smoke and flames.

Neal Beck, who had lived at Gabriel House for six years, said he was rescued by ladder from his bathroom window.

“I’ve been homeless before,” Beck said. “I guess I’ll be homeless again.”

Head cook Paul Ferreira was off the clock Sunday night but rushed to the scene and watched as bodies were removed from the building. He grew emotional describing the community of people who have long struggled to find affordable housing.

“Not knowing it was the last time I was cooking for them, it’s sad. They become part of your family,” Ferreira said. “Some of these people have no family members. Where are they going to go now?”

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Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Whittle reported from Scarborough, Maine. Associated Press writers Kathy McCormack in Concord and Matt O’Brien and Michelle Smith in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.