House Explodes During Eviction : Law enforcement: Resident is seriously burned and deputy is blown off porch in fiery blast during eviction.

A house exploded into flames Tuesday, severely burning one man and injuring another, moments after an Orange County deputy marshal kicked in the front door to evict a reclusive occupant who had vowed not to leave, authorities said.

Andrew Joseph Ferraro, a 40-year-old who kept to himself so much that neighbors said they thought his house on Lombardi was vacant, suffered third-degree burns and was transported to UCI Medical Center in Orange in critical condition.

Deputy Marshal John Williams, a 13-year veteran of the county marshal’s department, received cuts and bruises when he was blown off the porch of the beige, Spanish-style home by the force of the blast, according to marshal’s Capt. Don Spears.

The cause of the explosion was under investigation by bomb experts with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Spears said the deputy saw ropes strung across the doorway go taut as the door swung open, but he refused to speculate on whether it could have triggered the explosion.

The fire destroyed 80% of the fashionable hillside home, officials said. The brown composite-shingle roof was burned off one side and the flames apparently spread throughout the house.

Authorities refused to say why Ferraro was being evicted, but deputy marshals went to serve the civil eviction papers around mid-morning. Ferraro, officially ordered by a judge to leave several days ago, had called the marshal’s department earlier Tuesday “to say he would not be evicted, so we anticipated problems,” Spears said.

And the trouble began promptly upon their arrival.

“He wouldn’t let our deputies in,” said Spears. “Through the windows, they saw him running nude through the house. He warned them they’d better not come in.”

Ferraro, who was the only one in the house, refused to answer the deputies’ knocks at the front door, Spears said.

After receiving permission from a real estate broker to enter the house, the deputies--Williams, Bob Silverman, Rudy Burbank and Steve Homewood--went to both the front and rear doors. Deputy Williams, assigned to the unit that handles court evictions and arrest warrants, drew his service revolver “as a precautionary measure” and kicked in the door, Spears said.

“As it swung open, he observed some ropes strung across the doorway and as these ropes became taut, there was an explosion,” Spears said. “It blew the windows out of the house. The force of the explosion blew my deputy off the front porch.” It also caused him to harmlessly discharge his service pistol.

Neighbor George Leip said deputy marshals hopped over his side fence so they could cover the back door to Ferraro’s house. “They were calling, ‘Will you please open the door and talk to us?’ ” he said. Then there was what he could only describe as “a heavy blast” followed by a pall of black smoke and “a lot of confusion.”

Ferraro remained conscious despite his serious burns. A woman came to take away the dog that neighbors believe may have been his only company for the past year or so.

For some neighbors, it was the first time they had ever seen Ferraro. One woman said the only sign that someone lived at the house was the trash can that would appear out in front once a week.

Chris Groskinsky, who lived a couple doors away, said simply: “I’ve never seen the guy. I never saw a car in front. I thought it was vacant.”

Leip, a 17-year resident on the cul-de-sac, said the neighbor he called “Andy” was so private that it appeared he had boarded up his windows from the inside. “He wouldn’t speak to anyone. He was a mystery,” Leip said.

A few years ago, he said the man was a bit more social. Ferraro apparently lived with his mother and sister, who later moved out and left him in the house. Another neighbor saw him trundling up the hill one day wearing a dress shirt, tie, slacks and carrying a brief case.

For the past year, though, no one could say they had really seen him.

After his mother and sister moved out, “no one ever saw him,” said neighbor Winifred Gemmell. “The windows are all dirty. He never came out of that house.”

Times staff writer Mary Lou Fulton contributed to this article.