Faulty lift kills 6 Thane firemen

Six fire-fighters succumbed to suffocation and burn injuries in a malfunctioning elevator while trying to reach a blaze that had engulfed a 14th-floor flat of a Thane highrise early on Sunday morning. They were using a fire lift, installed specifically for such emergencies, said a senior state government official. An inquiry has begun into why the lift doors did not open in Tarangan Complex.      The men, from Wagle Estate fire station, died while attending to the second call from the same flat in less than five hours. Scenes of grief (left) dominated as hundreds came to bid farewell to the firemen at a memorial on Sunday. The person manning the water tank during the emergency call had to be hospitalised as he became incoherent on seeing the bodies of his colleagues.