A massive pile of drywall and shards of 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 as close as police tape would let them to the 3356 Brimley Rd. home that authorities 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, Myrtle Cupid, heard the blast and first thought it was a car that 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 neighbours had descended on the street.

Within minutes more than a dozen police cars, five fire trucks and a few ambulances had descended on the property. 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 the Star as 57-year-old Paul Zigomanis.

Just after the blast, they had treated a woman for minor injuries to her hand and cordoned off the Brimley Rd. block just south of Steeles Ave. E. Those living nearby the blast site were evacuated to the homes of friends and family living outside the police tape.







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 “totally flattened” by the blast.

He noted that at least 17 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.