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Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed in Nursing Home Fire
June 06, 2008

As a young man, Igor Shteyn spent most of his life caring for his mother after his father was killed in the Second World War. Unfortunately, the 67-year-old Shteyn did not have the same level of care and attention shown to him in his days of need. Last week, Shteyn, along with another man, were killed in a fire at the Hampton Plaza Health Care Centre.

Shteyn had been living at the nursing home for the past two years, a move that was brought about after anxiety and depression began to plague him. He had joined his two children in Chicago city in 1994.

The fire, which also injured two other residents in the nursing home, also resulted in a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home. Shteyn's daughter, Alla Mavlyanova, and her brother have filled the lawsuit in the Cook County Circuit Court. The law suit alleges that the staff at the nursing home was not equipped to deal with emergencies like a fire. Fire safety equipment like smoke alarms were also malfunctioning.

Investigations have not yet concluded the cause of the fire, which began at 11 pm on Wednesday in the closet in the room that Shteyn and his roommate shared on the third floor. The nursing home only permitted smoking in the first floor lounge. The roommate Naum Berdichevsky also died in the fire.

According to the lawsuit, residents of the nursing home were alerted to the inferno when other residents began banging on the doors. The law suit claims that the smoke alarms and fire detectors were not functioning as they were supposed to.

Mavlyanova's lawyer insists that staff members failed to attempt to enter Shteyn's room when they saw smoke pouring out from under the door.

Investigators are looking into the possibility of a smoldering smoke fire that might have being caused by a burned cigarette. Mavlyanova says her father was not a heavy smoker, and he never lit up in his room.

It seems appalling that in the 21^st century, patients at a nursing home on fire are awakened to the danger by people banging at their doors. Why did the smoke alarms not go off when the fire began to spread? Why were no attempts made to rescue the two men trapped in their third floor room? Was there a sprinkler system in place?

There are many questions that the investigators still need to find answers to, but it does not seem that the management at the Hampton Plaza Health Care Centre and the safety system there were adequate. Shteyn's family's lawsuit also asks the judge to allow them to hire an expert to look into the functioning of the smoke alarm and other safety equipment on the night of the fire. We hope that this incident leads to an overhaul of the safety standards at the nursing home, and that Shteyn's family receives the justice they deserve.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including families of victims of Wrongful Death. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

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