After spending days in critical condition, Brenda Cooper, 66, succumbed to injuries she sustained on July 16, officials said.

Assisted living centers are rare in Mass, but many families still don’t know what they offer — or what they don’t.

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.