Size of a 700c tire

[nameused]

Ok, so I have a friend with a road bike, and his tire blew out (the tire actually has a large gaping hole in it) along with the tube. Now we figured this might be a 26" tire so we went and bought one of those and tried it, but it was too small. So we thought it must be a 27" tire, but that tire was too big. So I went looking online and figured it must be a 700c tire which is between a 26" and a 27". The problem I'm having is that the old tube inside was a 27" x 1/4" and the old tire didn't have any markings on it to show what size it was. The same is true with the front tire and tube. So the problem I have is that I'm not 100% sure it's a 700c tire (more of a mountain bike guy myself) and I'm not sure which width I should get as there seems to be a lot of them. Any help is appreciated.

Here's pictures of his bike if they help any.
[attachment=2015]
edit: you can see where the tire eventually ripped through in this picture its on the left side of the back tire. The lighter patch that looks kind of stretched.
[attachment=2016]

[RBurrelli]

a quick search on Google revealed this...

[Tim M]

Forget the old tube. I have a hunch the correct tire is 700cm. Look at the tire for some molded lettering something like 38-622. The key is, if you find 622 then it is a 700cm tire. xx-622 is the ISO designation where 622 is the BSD for a 700cm and xx is the width. If you look for "700" molded on the tire, you won't find it.

It's confusing. two presentations, including width issues:

http://sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html

http://smtp.schwalbetires.com/tech_info/tire_dimensions

This may also be a good time to check the rim tape and check for spoke problems.