Major Manoj Kumar, who was stationed in the Pulgaon arms depot, was expected to come home on Thursday.
In two states separated by distance but united in grief, bodies of two brave Indian army officers, Lt Col Ranjit Singh from Uttarakhand and Major Manoj Kumar from Kerala, were laid to rest today with full military honours.
The two died fighting the devastating fire at Asia's largest arms depot in Maharashtra's Pulgaon on Tuesday. As officers-in-charge of the internal security at Army's Central Ammunition Depot, the two made desperate bids to safeguard the ammunition stocked in the depot, before they died as the
anti-tank mines caught fire.
Major Manoj Kumar was to come home on leave to be with his wife and 12-year-old son in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday. Instead what arrived was his lifeless body.
The soldiers were laid to rest with full military honours.
"I am a very, very proud wife. Very proud. My husband served this country and died serving this country," his wife Beena Manoj told NDTV.
In Haridwar, it was an eight-year-old son who lit the funeral pyre of his 38-year-old father, Lt Col Ranjit Singh, along with the officer's brother.
The officer was to soon proceed on his next posting to Udhampur, after meeting his family.
Fellow officers say both the officers were exceptional leaders and sportsmen.
Nineteen people including the army officers and fire-fighters were killed in the fire that broke out at the Pulgaon Central Ammunition Depot on Tuesday. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar
has ordered an inquiry into the incident.