​There's nothing left of the Mississauga, Ont., warehouse where Tim Casarin was nearly killed.

There's little left, too, of his memory of that day. It's what came afterward — the physical and mental recovery — that Casarin recalls as he pulls on his gear Friday for his first 24-hour shift since his world exploded on April 23, 2014.

At first, Tim Casarin didn't want to see news coverage of the fire at the storage warehouse. (Tony Smyth/CBC)

41 broken bones

The firefighter from the City of Mississauga's Tomken Road fire station and his team were the first crew to arrive at 2797 Thamesgate Dr. for that 2014 fire. They found smoke pouring from the window.

Casarin, 49, said he was asked to get some fans to ventilate the building, but he can remember nothing more.

"There was no noise, there was no sound, there was no heat," he says. "There was no pain — there was nothing."

He can't remember the aerosol exploding, nor the cinderblock that collapsed and broke 41 of his bones. And he obviously has no memory of the paramedics who found him without any signs of life.

Tim Casarin donned his gear Friday for his first 24-hour shift since an explosion in April 2014 that nearly killed him. (Paul Borkwood/CBC)

But emergency crews revived him and rushed him to St. Michael's Hospital, where he was placed in a medically induced coma. Tubes curled around limbs and a special brace kept him from being able to move his shattered body.

He'd broken his neck, his skull, his pelvis, his right leg and his ankle.

When my kids would come in the room, as soon as I would hear their voices, I would start moving - Tim Casarin , Mississauga firefighter

But he says his three children knew he would survive.

"When my kids would come in the room, as soon as I would hear their voices, I would start moving and acknowledge that they were in the room somehow," he says, something they told him about after he awoke.

"My youngest daughter … mentioned they were wheeling me for another one of my surgeries and she said, 'Good luck dad,' and I reached out to her.'"

Tim Casarin says he's part of a 'brotherhood' with his fellow City of Mississauga firefighters. (Paul Borkwood/CBC)

He arrived at West Park Healthcare Centre on a stretcher a month later — but he would leave using a walker. Casarin says that having his strength stripped away took a toll on his mental health as well and he suffered from PTSD.

Casarin's physicality had defined so much of his life: firefighter, runner, hockey player, gym rat.

So he told his friends, family and colleagues not to talk about the explosion. He says he wanted to focus on what was important — his physical recovery.

Part of the 'brotherhood'

But he knew that he had to work through the emotional fallout as well.

He began speaking with doctors, a psychologist and the three other firefighters who were injured with him that day. And now that he's "better than ever" physically, Casarin volunteers at the West Park rehab centre to talk with other patients about his injuries and how, through luck and hard work, he got well.

Although investigators ruled the fire to be accidental, 2358034 Ontario Ltd, and the firm that rented the warehouse, G.E. Forwarders Ltd., currently are on trial facing one charge each under the Ontario Fire Code.

Casarin says he's feeling 'better than ever' after a gruelling recovery. (Paul Borkwood/CBC)

The City of Mississauga has also filed a $2.5-million lawsuit against both firms.

And as he jokes around with his buddies at work Friday, Casarin says he knows he's part of a community. The same community that went back to the rubble, months later, and walked him through the explosion.

​"I knew there would be a time where I would probably need to know what happened," he says. "And what I've learned is through all of this [there's a] brotherhood; there's a bond here that you can't deny.

"And I'm proud and honoured to be a part of it."