The Middletown Press, Conn.
(TNS)
Oct. 24—WETHERSFIELD — Robert E. Sharkevich Sr. who died this week in an accident while battling a massive brush fire is being remembered as a "tremendous firefighter" and a "great mentor."
"He wasn't afraid of anything," retired Hartford Fire Lt. Thomas Jacobucci said.
Sharkevich, 66, a Wethersfield volunteer firefighter for 22 years and a former Hartford firefighter who served with a tactical rescue unit, died Tuesday in Meriden when a utility vehicle rolled on top of him as he helped battle a large brush fire on Lamentation Mountain in Berlin and Meriden. The funeral service is set for 11 a.m. Monday at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford.
"He was a great mentor to many people here," Wethersfield Fire Chief Brian Schroll said.
A married father of four children, Sharkevich was a skilled carpenter who worked for the local school district and knew a lot about building construction and the building trades, valuable information to firefighters, Schroll said. Responsible for a fire pumper, Engine 31, he also was "friendly to everybody," Schroll said, emotion rising in his voice.
"He was always serious when he needed to be serious and always funny when he needed to be funny," the chief said.
"Robert will forever be remembered as a true hero who always put others before himself," Sharkevich's obituary says.
He retired from the Hartford Fire Department after 25 years, where he was a member of the unit that typically arrived first at fires, car crashes and other emergencies. Jacobucci, the department's former public information officer, recalled a house fire in 1996 when Sharkevich was the first rescuer to enter a burning basement.
Sharkevich and other firefighters navigated through blinding smoke and temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees to save an elderly man, The Hartford Courant reported at the time.
"If that man lives," Jacobucci was quoted as saying, "it's only because of Sharkevich and the ( Hartford Fire Department)."
Sharkevich was treated for a burn to the back of his neck from melted roofing tar. About six years later, he was crawling on his belly in another burning house when he found 4-year-old Genesis Martinez unconscious on a bedroom floor. The girl's family had rushed from their third-floor New Britain Avenue apartment, The Courant reported in December 2002, but after they were out, they realized she was still inside.
Genesis did not survive, but Jacobucci said in an interview Thursday that such heroism was not unusual for Sharkevich.
"There's a couple of people walking around today who wouldn't be if not for Rob Sharkevich," he said.
Sharkevich also made sure to honor other firefighters who risked and sometimes lost their lives. In December 1999, a Boston Herald reporter talked to him outside a Worcester warehouse where six firefighters perished in a fierce blaze. At the time, a search for bodies of four of the fallen men was ongoing and about 200 Connecticut firefighters had come to the site to offer support and collect donations for the families.
"It just sends a chill through your spine," Sharkevich told the Herald reporter. "Everybody grieves in their own way, and actually seeing it, you know, knowing that this many guys are here and sticking together, and not going home until the last one is home is a good feeling."
Sharkevich is survived by his mother, Sophia Sharkevich; wife, Joanne Sharkevich (Guglielmi); son Robert Sharkevich Jr.; daughter Kristy Sharkevich; twin sons, Camden and Kayden Sharkevich; grandchildren Jourdan and Adriana Sharkevich; brothers, Steven and Gary Sharkevich Sr.; sisters Cathi Gulliksen and Karen Letizio; and many nieces, nephews and other relatives.
Calling hours at the Farley-Sullivan Funeral Home, 34 Beaver Road, Wethersfield, are set for 2 to 7 p.m. Sunday. Burial will be at Rose Hill Memorial Park, 580 Elm St., Rocky Hill. In lieu of flowers, the family asks people to consider donating to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
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