A worker was killed when a fire broke out at a shoe factory in the district's Vasai township in the wee hours of Wednesday, an official said. The blaze occurred around 4 am and gutted the entire shoe manufacturing unit located in an industrial estate in Sativali area, Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation's chief fire officer Dileep Palav said.

A worker, identified as Javed (40), was sleeping inside the unit and was charred to death in the mishap, he said. He used to live near the unit but last night went to sleep in the factory apparently after having a tiff with his family members, the official said. Six fire tenders were pressed into service and the blaze was brought under control after four hours, Palav said.

A short-circuit was suspected to have caused the fire, the official said. An investigation was on into the incident, he said, adding that the body was sent for postmortem.