Investigations into a deadly fire at the Gabriel House assisted living home in Fall River Massachusetts found that the fire started in a room where an oxygen concentrator and smoking materials were present.
Writing in the March 2026 issue of HME News, Ray Reynolds Chair of the International Association of Fire Chiefs’ Home Oxygen Therapy Fire Working Group argues that with around 1.5 million Americans relying on home oxygen therapy, the fire risk it carries remains one of the most overlooked in home health care.
South Dakota has become the latest state to approve Medicaid reimbursement for bidirectional thermal fuses, joining Iowa, Washington, North Dakota, Kansas, and Missouri in taking action at state level to protect home oxygen patients from home oxygen fires.
The approval means that home medical equipment providers (DMEs) in South Dakota can now be reimbursed for supplying the devices.
In September 2025, 17 representatives of the fire safety, burn care and academic communities — including burns victims and survivors of home oxygen fires — wrote to the CMS calling on it to reconsider the decision.