One dead in Brimley Rd. house explosion
Neighbours complain of smell of gas, leading to evacuation of several area homes
A massive pile of drywall and wood sat in the place of a Scarborough home Monday evening after an explosion ripped apart the house, claiming the life of a man.
Neighbours gathered close to the 3356 Brimley Rd. home that police said had been “totally flattened.” As they gawked at shreds of paper that floated through the air and pinched their noses to complain about the smell of gas, they snapped photos of a coating of fluffy yellow insulation that had erupted with the blast, covering nearby homes, trees and cars.
Jocelyn Lawrence, a woman living a street over from the scene, said she had just arrived home from a long trip to Nashville when she heard a “loud boom.”
“It shook the entire house,” she said, of the blast occurring just before 4:30 p.m.
“I couldn’t believe it. Everything was rocking.”
Another local resident, Myrtle Cu-
“We were in the kitchen of the house and all of a sudden we heard this shake.” MYRTLE CUPID RESIDENT
pid, heard the blast and thought a car had slammed into her garage.
“We were in the kitchen of the house and all of a sudden we heard this shake, like the house was almost off the foundation, it was that powerful,” Cupid said.
She and Lawrence said they both ran outside, where crowds of neigh- bours had descended on the usually quiet residential street.
Within minutes more than a dozen police cars, five fire trucks and a few ambulances had arrived. Police quickly cordoned off the Brimley Rd. block just south of Steeles Ave. E and began evacuating neighbours to the homes of friends and family living outside the police tape.
They treated one woman for minor injuries to her hand and pulled one man without vital signs from the debris, pronouncing him dead on the scene.
On Monday evening, police identified the man to CP24 as 57-year-old Paul Zigomanis. Investigators added that Zigomanis was known to police.
Capt. Adrian Ratushniak of Toronto Fire Services said the area was evacuated because of a natural gas leak surrounding the neighbourhood of the home that was destroyed by the blast.
He noted that at least 12 adjacent houses were damaged by the explosion, which left vertical blinds hanging from nearby trees and neighbours scratching their heads as to what exactly happened.
The answer to that conundrum will come as police continue to investigate.