Assisted-living facility where fire killed 10 people temporarily lost certification for mistreatment

A Massachusetts assisted-living facility where a fire killed 10 people earlier this month temporarily lost its certification nearly a decade ago due to resident mistreatment, according to state regulators.

Specific details of what prompted the month-long suspension were redacted in documents the state Executive Office of Aging & Independence provided to The Associated Press on Tuesday. But based on a March 2016 incident involving a certified nurse’s aid who was later fired, state regulators concluded that Gabriel House failed to treat residents with “consideration, respect, personal dignity and privacy.”

The facility in Fall River was barred from accepting new residents until it took corrective action.

The state’s deadliest blaze in more than four decades has highlighted the lack of regulations governing assisted-living facilities that often care for low-income or disabled residents. Gov. Maura Healey declined last week to weigh in on the efficacy of state and local inspections. Instead, Healey has touted that a state commission is currently working on recommendations to improve assisted-living facilities.

State records released Tuesday include about two dozen complaints about the facility in the the last decade, including several related to “abuse, neglect or financial exploitation. Other complaints involved a resident getting stuck for hours in an elevator that was then out of service for months and staff members who threatened residents and withheld medication.

The state documented about two dozen complaints about the facility, including a few under the category “abuse, neglect or financial exploitation,” but details are redacted. There also were complaints about a nurse withholding medication, “environmental safety” and the cook: “The cook is obsessive, controlling and abusive.”

The most detailed complaint is from 2015 and appears to have been written or dictated by a resident. It lists more than a dozen issues, including bed bugs, roaches over-medicated residents and fist fights in common areas.

“It is a place where you can’t feel safe due to other patients and corrupt staff,” the complaint states. “The staff treat the people there very cruel and show no respect for them or there needs.”

Dennis Etzkorn, the owner of Gabriel House, has said he will not speak to journalists and is focused on helping families of the victims and cooperating with the investigation into the fire.

Before the July 13 fire, the most recent compliance review found numerous repeat violations, many related to record keeping. After the facility submitted a corrective plan, the state renewed its certification in December 2023.

Investigators said last week that the fire started unintentionally by either someone smoking or an electrical issue with an oxygen machine. The blaze left some residents of the three-story building hanging out of windows and screaming for help.

____

Associated Press Writer Kimberlee Kruesi in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.