Then, West Main Video, housing obviously more than movies, burst into an inferno and spouted continuous streams of fireworks throughout the Sunday-night sky.
"Oh my God," said William Jones, who lives a few houses from the store. "This is a catastrophe."
Jones said he heard a noise at around 9:30 p.m. that sounded like a car crash. "But then I heard the popping noises (of the fireworks)," he said.
More than 100 people crowded the 300 block of West Main Street as fireworks exploded into the sky for well over an hour. The fireworks could be seen and heard from blocks away.
Televised reports indicated the blaze began at the rear of the building. The initial explosion blew out the glass front of the store.
The fire was contained to the 373 W. Main St. video store, one firefighter said. Two nearby buildings, the former Paulick's Furniture and the House of Wings, sustained minor damage, said Plymouth firefighter Holly Stull. She could not provide further details.
Resident Theresa Smith said the explosion "sounded like bombs going off."
"I started praying. It was awful; an awful scare," she said.
Just after 10 p.m., black plumes of smoke billowed from the store as fireworks shot across West Main Street and exploded in nearby yards. The spectacular explosions lasted several minutes before things eased around 10:15 p.m., though intermittent explosions and fierce flames continued.
Shortly after power lines caught on fire, firefighters moved hundreds of people farther from the scene, extending police tape north from Wagner Lane across West Main Street to Turner Street. Phone service was shut off to dozens of homes.
Kelly Kurkowski, who also lives near the video store, sat on her porch and watched as firefighters battled the flames.
"It's crazy," she said. "I thought it was a car wreck. It was just a big kaboom. It scared me to death."
As winds carried burning embers onto neighboring houses, firefighters from several communities sprayed the buildings to keep the blaze from spreading. Kingston's ladder truck wet down the roof of the House of Wings, two buildings away.
An elderly woman living next door to West Main Video was taken to a neighbor's house. Two people were taken away by emergency crews, but the extent of their injuries could not be determined at press time. It was unclear how many people were in the video store when the blaze began.
Fire officials at first thought they would have to evacuate the block, but decided it wouldn't be necessary, said neighbor Lindsey Ripa.
Additional information was unavailable at press time.
Massive amounts of exploding fireworks turned West Main Video in Plymouth into an inferno Sunday night. The fire began shortly before 10 p.m.
Continuous streams of fireworks dotted the night sky Sunday as Plymouth's West Main Video - which housed obviously more than movies - burned.
