Virar firefighter charred to death during rescue ops

It was just a month back that Nitin Ivalekar, a fireman with the Borivli fire station, had moved into his newly purchased flat in Virar's (West) posh Global City area. His death has come as a bolt from the blue for the family and relatives, who couldn't bring themselves to break the news to his wife and two daughters.

Ivalekar died during rescue operations at Lotus Business Park in Andheri, where a major fire erupted on Friday. He is survived by his mother, brother, sister, wife Shubhangi and two daughters Sanavi, 2, and Suha, 6.

"Shubhangi is on her way to RN Cooper Hospital from their Virar residence. We have not told her that Nitin is no more," said Vina More, the deceased's sister-in-law. Another relative said, "We just couldn't tell her what happened to him; they were still celebrating the purchase of their new home, happy and busy with the shifting." Doctors said they were waiting for Shubhangi to come and identify the body.

During the fire operations, which were on since morning, Ivalekar lost contact with his fellow firefighters and got trapped in the smoke. "More than 10 of us were moving in a queue and climbing the staircase to reach the top floor. All of us managed to get up till the 22nd storey, but we lost contact with Nitin, who was nowhere to be found. Hours later, his charred body was extracted from the building. It seems he was completely engulfed in fire and suffocated due to burns and lung injury," said a colleague.

After the post-mortem, his body will be taken to Byculla fire station for his friends and relatives to pay their last respects and will later be shifted to his parental home in Mankhurd before his last rites are performed, a relative said.