Two killed in Niles nursing home fire

Two elderly residents of a Niles nursing home are dead after a fire started in a closet of the room they shared.

The blaze began late Wednesday in the closet of the third-floor room at the Hampton Plaza Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The cause remained under investigation Thursday, but there did not appear to be any electrical problems in the closet, said Niles Police Sgt. Tom Davis.

Davis said the two men were taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where they were pronounced dead. He identified them as Igor Shteyn, 67, and Naum Berdichevsky, 76, and said both men died in bed and the causes of death appeared to be smoke inhalation.

A 90-year-old woman and a 54-year-old woman also were taken to area hospitals, where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, Davis said. The older woman suffered smoke inhalation and the other had a knee injury.

Davis said the fire was contained to the one room of the six-story nursing home, which has 304 beds. Residents from surrounding third-floor rooms were moved to other areas of the building, which was not evacuated.