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Pahoa, Hawaii (CNN)"You might want to step back," said Darryl Clinton as yet another explosion boomed nearby.

He seemed to know exactly what that sound meant. A fissure that violently cracked open the earth’s surface was spewing more lava and, possibly, more lava bombs — flying chunks of molten rock.

Clinton spoke to CNN on Friday, while defending two homes in Pahoa roughly 100 yards from the unstable fissure that’s been erupting for more than a week now.

Even to get from one house to another takes a life-or-death game of frogger.

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Clinton pointed to the remains of one lava bomb purged from a nearby fissure that landed just inches from a friend’s house. The yard was littered every few feet with with freshly-fallen lava, but Clinton wasn’t worried about getting hit by the hunks of molten rock.

“It’s almost like catching a football,” Clinton said in describing how to avoid being hit. “But you don’t want to catch this football.”

Armed with just a fire extinguisher and a garden hose, Clinton has been defending the homes that belong to friends.

He’s been spraying down the burning lava bombs that hit the houses to prevent them from catching fire. Heaps of flaming rock have already shattered windows and destroyed a septic tank — setting it ablaze with a blue flame of burning methane gas.

A day later, Clinton fell victim himself — distracted by his cell phone for mere moments, when a bowling ball-sized lava bomb hit him in the leg while he was standing on the porch.

His friend and ex-wife Lisa Roach was nearby and able to take him to the hospital. She had been helping him defend the homes — the pair were keeping watch in shifts.

Roach told CNN she believes the intense heat of the lava bomb actually cauterized the wound, preventing it from bleeding more than it did.