A day after a firefighter lost his life while dousing the fire in a commercial highrise here, his family on Saturday refused to perform the final rites until the municipality gave a written assurance of monetary compensation and a government job to his wife.
It was only after the written assurance from Chief Fire Officer A.N. Varma on fulfilling the demands within one month was received that the family allowed the body to be taken for the last rites. The municipality has announced compensation of Rs. 15 lakh to the family of the deceased
Nitin Yevalekar (32), succumbed to burns on Friday during fire-fighting operations at the Lotus Business Park in Andheri in suburban Mumbai. His wife and family blamed the ill-equipped fire brigade for Yevalekar’s death.
“What am I supposed to do now? I have lost my husband. Had he been provided with adequate safety equipment, he would have been still alive,” said his wife Shubhangi.
According to senior fire officials, city’s fire brigade remains severely ill-equipped despite repeated demands of modernisation. “Every thing, right from our uniforms to equipments, remains old and unchanged,” said one officer from Fire Brigade. He added that while a number of high risers are under construction, the inability of fire brigade to douse fire above 23 floors remains unnoticed.
