EVANS CITY — A 39-year-old Army staff sergeant from Evans City has died from wounds suffered in an explosion in Afghanistan.

The Defense Department said in a release that Staff Sgt. Eric Holman died on Wednesday in Ghazni province, which is in eastern Afghanistan between Kabul and Kandahar.

The Pentagon said Holman died of wounds suffered when he encountered an enemy’s improvised explosive device.

Holman was assigned to the 192nd Ordnance Battalion, 52nd Ordnance Group, with the 20th Support Command at Fort Bragg, N.C.

“He was a great friend, treated everybody equal. It’s very hard,” said Kerry Long, Holman’s brother-in-law, on Saturday morning.

Long said most of the Holman family was at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where Sgt. Holman’s body was to arrive at 9:45 a.m. Saturday morning. He said no funeral home has been decided upon and that it could be about a week before a local memorial service is scheduled.

Holman, the son of David L. Holman of Evans City, and Carol S. Holman of Franklin Park, was raised in Ohio Township, Allegheny County, and graduated from Avonworth High School in 1990 before heading to Penn State, where he earned a degree in criminal justice in 1995.

Holman is survived by his wife, Terri Holman, and the son the couple adopted from Russia in 2007, Misha Holman, 7, who lives with his mother in Beaver County.

Holman also is survived by his sister, Lisa Long of Evans City, and a brother, Kevin Holman of Edinboro.