THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 2008
Suit Filed Over Deadly Fire
By DWIGHT ESAU
Journal Reporter
As investigators continued to search Tuesday, May 20, for the cause of the May 14 fire that killed two men at the Hampton Plaza Nursing and Rehab Center in Niles, the tragedy generated a prompt wrongful death lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed Monday by the daughter of a 67-year-old man who was one of two men who died, reportedly of smoke inhalation, at the nursing home located at 9777 N. Greenwood Ave.
The lawsuit was filed by Alla Mavlyanova on behalf of her father, Igor Shteyn, who died in the fire along with Naum Berdishevsky. They were reportedly sleeping in the room about 11 p.m. when the fire broke out.
According to Niles Police Sgt. Tom Davis, Niles firefighters arrived at the facility at 11:05 p.m., to find the blaze confined to a closet in the residents' room on the third floor.
The two victims were taken to Lutheran General Hospital, where they were pronounced dead at 11:55 p.m. and 12:24 a.m. A third roommate who lived with the two men was not in the room at the time of the fire and walked away from the scene unharmed, authorities said.
The cause of the fire was undetermined as of Tuesday, and was still under investigation by the State Fire Marshal and Niles detectives.
Davis said he was told that two of the three men living in the room were smokers.
The fire was confined to the room, Davis said, which sustained some water and smoke damage.
Two elderly women were reportedly also taken to Lutheran General for treatment of minor injuries, Davis said.
The lawsuit charges that the nursing home failed to take adequate measures to insure that a safe or adequate emergency response system was in place at the time of the deadly fire.
"There is a very real issue here of whether this nursing home and its staff were prepared to deal with this type of casualty," said Louis Cairo, attorney representing Ms. Mavlyanova. "If there had been an adequate fire suppression system, fire alarms, smoke detectors, and personnel in place who were trained to deal with a fire, then we should not be talking about casualties because Igor and Mr. Berdichevsky would not have lost their lives in this fire," Cairo said.
Shteyn immigrated to the United States from the area of Kiev, Russia, several years ago.
Cairo said the suit was filed promptly in order "to ensure that the estate had a presence at this site through its legal representatives, forensic experts, and other safety experts."
The family is seeking to obtain access to the fire scene by its own forensic and fire safety experts, Cairo said. "We are investigating what type of protective devices were actually installed, such as fire suppression systems, fire alarms, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, etc., as well as trying to determine what kind of training the nursing home personnel received."