Neighbors identified the man as 52-year-old Paul Cooper, although officials said they could release an identity until an autopsy is performed.
South Shore Volunteer Fire Department Chief Kenneth Taylor said the man was a licensed fireworks maker and that the cause of the explosions had not been determined. The deceased made fireworks and displayed them all over the country, including the Portsmouth Labor Day show, he said.
Coopers wife, Stella, and 30-year-old daughter, Angel Cooper, escaped from the house unharmed, police said.
Just after 9:10 a.m., South Shore residents as far as a mile away notified emergency services about the explosion at 118 Second Street in Sand Hill.
It sounded like a bomb, said Paulette Stapleton, who lives across the street. She said one of Cooper's children was nearly injured when an explosion blew out a window. No one else in the five-person family was injured.
Audray Hensley and her husband Bryan and other neighbors who live across the street, were sleeping when they heard the explosion.
``I heard a couple of explosions and I asked my husband, What was that?'' Audray Hensley said. ``We looked out the window and heard a couple of more explosions and we saw flames coming up the side of the garage.''
William Fields, who lives about 400 feet away from Cooper and said he had known him since he was a kid, said he heard three successive booming sounds coming from Coopers house shortly after 9 a.m., followed by several noises that sounded like rifle fire.
``I came out on my back porch, and I saw something shoot out of the house and explode in a fireball,'' said Fields, 76. ``It just kept going on and on for a long period of time. People were screaming. It was pretty startling.''
South Shore firefighter Justin Taylor said fireworks were going off everywhere when the trucks rolled in.
Neighbors called the fire department and by the time they got outside, the house was fully engulfed in flames.
``When I saw the flames come out of that room, I just knew he was gone,'' Stapleton said. ``There's gunpowder in there. He reloaded gun cartridges.''
Greenup County Coroner Neil Wright said a positive identification would not be available for at least two days until an autopsy is completed in Frankfort.
