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.

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.

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.

A Fall River independent and assisted-living facility where a fire killed 10 people earlier this month temporarily lost its certification nearly a decade ago.