TORONTO - The first of four contractors who plunged 13 storeys to their deaths in an horrific Christmas Eve industrial accident in Rexdale was laid to rest yesterday.

But as those who knew and loved Alexander Bondorev said their final goodbyes in Richmond Hill, his family and the families of the other three victims continued to wait for investigators to determine why the scaffolding the men were working on snapped in two.

"He was the youngest of the guys who were killed," a grief-stricken Oxana Afanasenko, 27, whose husband Aleksey Blumberg, 32, is also among the victims, said yesterday.

Labour ministry investigators and Toronto Police continue to investigate the accident at 2757 Kipling Ave., in which a large four-piece section of scaffolding, known as a swing stage, broke in half.

LOCAL FUNERAL

Alla Bass said her friend Afanasenko will likely bury her newlywed husband -- a refugee claimant -- here as well because she can't afford to send him home to the Ukraine.

Irina Cherniakova, 36, hasn't yet made plans for her husband Vladimir Korostin's funeral either, Bass said. But she has now told the youngest of their two daughters, Daniela, that her daddy will never be coming home.

Initially Cherniakova told her seven-year-old her father was in hospital because she didn't know how to break the news to her on Christmas Day. "She cried and cried because she drew a picture for him for Christmas and now she can't give it to him," Bass said.

A trust fund has now been set up for the victims' families. "It's for everyone because they are probably all going to need help," Bass said. Donations can be made at any TD Canada Trust, account number 1076-6432077.

CHRIS.DOUCETTE@SUNMEDIA.CA