Relatives Of Man Critically Injured From Military Ammunition Speak To News 5

Shattered glass, charred hoses and debris is what's left of Nobby Wilson's shed.  "They called me and told me that my baby brother got blew up, and I left there, come home," says Nobby.

His younger brother, 33 year old Dale Johnson, was critically injured Thursday afternoon after cutting into an old and unstable military explosive that ignited right in front of him.

"I was down here with him. He told me he was going to clean it. I told him I was sick and was going to lay down, and as soon as I laid down, I heard an explosion. I came out walked around the shed there, and he collapsed.  I thought he was dead, when he fell, I thought he was gone," says Lance Looney, Dale's cousin.

Acting on impulse, Lance took off his shirt and applied pressure on Dale's neck to control the bleeding. Lance and another family member were able to get Dale into a truck and rush him up the street to a fire station.

"I went into shock, I didn't know what to do.  If it hadn't been for his sister telling me to get him in the truck," says Lance.

People living nearby were evacuated as authorities detonated the rest of the explosives.  "I saw a whole bunch of police cars, fire truck, bomb squad, ATF, everything was there," says Noah Vance, a 13 year old neighbor.

Noah and his family live a couple houses down. They were told to evacuate for the night. "All of us had to be out by 10pm and about 3:15am, we heard explosions."

Family members say selling scrap pieces is how they make their living and says if Dale had known the explosive was live, he wouldn't have touched it.  Dale's eyes, lungs and hands are badly damaged and relatives are just hoping he pulls through. 

"Right now we just need prayers until he gets better, we don't know when that will be," says his mother, Kathy Gouillote.