After the blast: Neighbors recall chaos, heroism and heartbreak in Cape St. Claire

Joseph Toms had just sat down to finish the best man’s speech for his brother’s wedding Saturday when he heard the boom.

Did a tree hit the house? He wondered as he looked around the living room of his father’s Cape St. Claire home, where he planned to stay the week.

“It reminded me of when I was in Afghanistan and our MRAP was hit,” he said, referring to a mine-resistant Army vehicle.

Then he walked out onto his father’s terrace. The two-story home with an immaculate garden that neighbor Stanley Synowczynski tended to only minutes earlier, was gone, replaced by smoke and rubble.

His Navy corpsman’s instincts kicked in and he ran toward the wreckage.

Anne Arundel County emergency crews responded to calls of the explosion at 1198 Green Holly Drive around 12:15 p.m. Wednesday.

They discovered a collapsed home, where a woman, Linda Synowczynski, 76, was later declared dead and a man, Stanley Synowczynski, suffered critical injuries, the department said in a statement Thursday. A police officer also sustained minor injuries from the incident.

Larry Schultz, an assistant fire chief, said the couple received a propane delivery an hour before the explosion. Officers reached out to the gas company and an investigation into the incident is ongoing, the local Fire Marshal’s Office said in a news release.

The aftermath left neighbors shocked and fearful.

“I just hope that he survives,” said Jim Marino, 73, a neighbor of Stanley and Linda Synowczynski.

He described Stanley as a helpful neighbor, who always made time to check on the woman next door to Marino who suffered from dementia.

“To not have his wife when this is supposed to be their golden years — it’s all really shocking,” he said.

Another neighbor, Deborah Banks, said Synowczynski would give others “the shirt off his back” if they asked. His wife, Linda, enjoyed making beaded jewelry and was rarely seen outside without Stanley.

Banks admired his commitment to his red Plymouth Barracuda, which he often tinkered with in the front yard and occasionally took for a spin around the neighborhood. But even more than the classic car, Banks said, the Synowczynskis’ yard stood out on Green Holly Drive. She recalled the outdoorsy 75-year-old Stanley winning “garden of the month” with the Cape St. Clair garden club for his flowers and pink flamingo ornaments.

“It was one of his babies,” she said of the yard, which bloomed every spring and summer.

“It’s devastating. They demolished parts of it to get to where the propane tank was delivered,” said Banks, adding that the hood of his cherished car also was smashed by debris.

The explosion shook Banks’ home, a few doors away from the Synowczynskis’. Her photographs fell. Steel pots clattered. She raced outside dialing 911, but struggled to get through. Standing at the intersection of Windgate and Green Holly Drive, Banks froze — overwhelmed by the screams, police sirens and her stubborn fear that another explosion could come at any minute.

After seeing the destruction, Toms, a Navy chief petty officer and chief hospital corpsman in Corpus Christi, Texas, ran with his younger brother Ben — only a few day short of getting married — to the Synowczynskis’ crumbled home. They began digging through the rubble searching for the Synowczynskis, despite the pleas of neighbors to “get back” for their safety.

By the time Toms located Linda Synowczynski’s feet, poking from beneath the roof in the back of the house, his shoes had caught on several nails and he’d suffered lacerations on his hands and arms. He checked her pulse and called for his brother Ben to help lift the debris from her body.

“If that was my family,” he said, “I’d want someone to do the same.”

The brothers and another neighbor lifted the roof, he said, as Linda Synowczynski’s pulse faded. He recalls seeing her eyes move and mouth gasp before she died.

After emergency personnel arrived and started tending to her, Toms climbed back into the rubble to find Stanley Synowczynski. Minutes passed as they screamed for him, sifting through large pieces of broken wood.

As Toms lungs began to burn, he recalled shouting at his brother Ben to leave: “You have to get out of here, in case something happens to you.”

Then Toms heard Stanley. He spotted the top of his head moving behind a bunch of rubble.

Stanley was able to walk out of the debris on his own, Toms said, though his pants and body appeared burned and tattered. As first responders led him away, Toms said he heard him call for his wife.

A helicopter carried Stanley to the burn center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition.

Toms, still in a T-shirt and shorts from helping his father on the terrace earlier in the day, also sought medical help for his injuries — mostly cuts and heat exhaustion.

“I’ve had to deal with trauma that’s a lot worse than what I saw” Wednesday, he said.

On Thursday, he said the entire incident remained a blur, though his lungs still burn when he thinks of the Synowczynskis’ home.

In a phone call with the Banner he said the afternoon prompted him to revisit his brother’s best man speech.

“I thought I had it all tied up,” he said. “But life threw me another story last minute.”