“Do you believe that it’s live now?…You are one lucky man.”

That was the reaction of Tara Saunders, the wife of a Bell Island lobster fisherman, after the military artillery shell he found in the water was detonated.

Areas of the island were closed over the weekend after Stewart Saunders dove into the water and retrieved the corroded device, not knowing at the time that it was still live.

Residents on the island heard two loud booms yesterday evening as the explosive was set off in a controlled environment.

Tara Saunders says she was in her car when she heard it.

“It sounded like my roof of my vehicle was caving in, and I went ‘what’s that?’ Then with that, a second later the big bang. That’s when we knew for sure that (it) was, in fact, the missile being detonated.”

Hearing the explosion has changed the family’s perspective on the situation, including for one of Saunders’ children.

Saunders’ youngest son told her “daddy was flirting with death,” noting that he was scraping it with a knife to try to find information about it. She says the situation really struck a cord with the child.