COLLEGE WARD, Cache County — Shane Zilles could hear his neighbor's pleas from somewhere under the rubble Thursday and knew he had to find him. Fast.

The off-duty Cache County sheriff's deputy and the other neighbors with him located the spot where the cries were coming from, then began digging with their hands through the jumble of live electrical wires, shattered lumber and broken brick that had been a home just minutes earlier.

"He was under a couple of layers of 2-by-4s," Zilles told the Deseret News. "We started digging for him, and he stuck his hand out."

Tony Sorensen, 27, and his sister, Mary Sorensen, 23, were in their parents' home near 2900 South and 2400 West about 10:20 a.m. Thursday when the first of several explosions ripped through the structure. The blast reduced the home to little more than "sticks and bricks," as one sheriff's official described it, and sent massive chunks of debris raining down on neighbors' yards hundreds of feet away.

"You knew something bad had happened," said neighbor Brandon Anderson, describing his reaction to not only hearing but feeling the explosion.

"It was shocking to look across the field and see the two-story house gone," he said.

Anderson and his brother hurried to the scene and encountered Zilles and his father searching through the wreckage. Mary Sorensen — bloodied and screaming — was standing nearby.

"I'm not sure how she got out of that house," he said.

Zilles told the woman to call 911 as the men began searching for her brother. They could hear him calling for help, pinpointed the area where they believed he was buried, and worked to unearth him as quickly as possible.

"He was conscious the whole time," Anderson said of Tony Sorensen. "He's a tough kid."

Within minutes of the rescue, a fire burning at the center of the demolished home spread through the debris, setting off a series of small explosions and igniting a larger blaze.

Tony Sorensen was flown to University Hospital in critical condition with burns over 65 percent of his body suffered during the first explosion. Mary Sorensen was transported to Logan Regional Hospital with minor cuts and burns. She was listed in fair condition.

"Both victims are expected to recover," said Cache County Sheriff's Chief Deputy David L. Bennett.

The Sorensens were living in the home while their parents were serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Edinburgh, Scotland, according to neighbors. They are the youngest of nine siblings, some of whom live just yards from their parents' home — houses their father helped them build, neighbors said.