The family of a Rutgers University researcher, his wife and their 13-year-old daughter who died in a two-alarm blaze that ripped through a Hillsborough Township apartment complex last week started a GoFundMe page to raise enough money to pay for their funeral.
HILLSBOROUGH - The family of a Rutgers University researcher, his wife and their 13-year-old daughter who died in a two-alarm blaze that ripped through a township apartment complex last week started a GoFundMe page to raise enough money to pay for their funeral.
Vinod B. Damodaran, 44, Sreeja Thekkekoical-Sasi, 38, and Aardra V. Nair, 13, were killed in a fire on Oct. 24. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation, said Capt. Jack Bennett, spokesman for the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office.
The GoFundMe page, which was started on Friday by Mini Balachandran, a first cousin of Damodaran, set a goal of $15,000. It was shut down on Sunday after raising $16,766.
The Bongiovi Funeral Home in Raritan Borough is handling the funeral arrangements. No date or time has been set for the viewing and funeral, Funeral Director Antonietta Cuoco said on Wednesday.
3 killed in 2-alarm fire in Hillsborough
The couple is from Kerala, India, and came to the United States eight years ago.
Damodaran worked with the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials, having studied at Rutgers as a post-doctoral associate since 2013, program coordinator Louli Kourkounakis told the school's The Daily Targum newspaper in an email.
Damodaran was also doing research at the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials at the university according to a bio associated with a book he co-authored on biomedical polymers. His professional profile listed his areas of expertise as biomedical social sciences, chemistry, materials science, and polymer science.
"Quickly, Vinod showed that he was a unique individual both as a scientist and as a person," said Kourkounakis. "He was a superb chemist, a go-to person with any question, big and small, profound and trivial. He helped all of us with an enthusiasm that we are going to miss.
"As a person, he was one of the most cheerful, energetic and kindest souls that we have known. He was the glue who would bring people in the lab together to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner, an award, or the publication of a paper.
"His joy for life was infectious and left a lasting impression on everyone who came in contact with him. We can never forget his smile, his words, and his enthusiasm towards life."
Fatal fire was 3rd in Central Jersey in 2016
Aardra was a freshman at Hillsborough High School. A letter sent to parents from Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jorden Schiff following the tragedy described her as "a sweet, bright young woman who will be greatly missed by the HHS family."
The two-alarm fire damaged at least four apartments at the Hillsborough Garden Apartments on Farm Road, authorities said. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation, authorities said.
The fire was reported at 9:52 p.m. and appears to have started in a bedroom in a second-floor apartment before spreading to the roof, authorities said. When firefighters arrived, an upstairs unit was fully engulfed in fire, authorities said.
The adjoining units were immediately evacuated, authorities said. When the fire was brought under control just before 11 p.m., firefighters from Hillsborough Fire 36 were able to make entry into the second-floor unit and discovered the bodies, authorities said.
Dave Hutchinson may be reached at dhutchinson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DHutch_SL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.