Cameron Padbury, a Jasper, Alabama paramedic of 18 years, found himself in an unusual and potentially explosive situation when he kept an 8 hour vigil with a man who had a 40mm grenade stuck in his thigh.

As a reference this video shows the type of grenade stuck in the man's leg and how destructive they can be:

Read the whole story at AL.com.

"That was extremely heroic,'' said Dave Hyche, a Birmingham supervisor with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "Nobody knew this wasn't live. Removing it could have easily killed everyone there."

The man, in his early 60s, was brought to UAB Hospital late Friday night with a possible explosive device inside of his leg. The incident prompted Birmingham and UAB police to close down Fifth Avenue South between 18th and 19th streets from after 11 p.m. into the early morning hours.

He was brought to UAB from another hospital by Regional Paramedic Services, Birmingham police Sgt. B. Shelton said. The man had apparently been tinkering with some kind of explosive device and it became lodged inside of his leg, Shelton said.

Hyche said he was disassembling the grenade when it launched. It was not fired from a launcher.

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