EVANSTON - Unfortunately, it was like the Fourth of July all over again.

An early morning fire Wednesday consumed the Jolly Jacs fireworks store and in the process created an awesome fireworks display for area residents, Uinta County Fire District officials said.

"I don't mean to make light of the fact that (the owners) had a total loss of their business, but it was a pretty spectacular fireworks show," District Fire Chief Don Bodine said.

The Jolly Jacs building - and a nearby semi-trailer parked on the east side of the store that was used to store extra fireworks - were destroyed in the blaze, officials said.

Firefighters also put out a few spot fires in the surrounding grassy and sagebrush areas that were ignited by the fireworks. The store is located just south of Exit 3 on Interstate 80 along Evanston's Front Street in southwest Wyoming.

There was no immediate estimate of the amount of damages and no injuries were reported.

"The building was fairly well stocked with product, but we have no idea what kind of dollar figure that would be," he said.

Bodine said at the district's request, an arson investigator from the state fire marshal's office arrived at the scene Wednesday afternoon to help determine the cause of the fire.

He said county dispatchers received a security alarm from the store around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. A police officer responding to the alarm arrived at the store and found the fire "fully involved," he said.

"The front, the back, from side-to-side … the entire interior of the store was on fire," said Bodine.

"It was a big blaze that started at one of the front windows, which looked like it was broken out, and at one of the front doors," he said. "When we arrived on the scene, we were having fireworks going off everywhere,"

The chief said because the interior of the building was completely engulfed in flames, firefighters formed a perimeter at the scene and let the fire burn itself out.

"Not knowing what to expect from these fireworks and wondering if we were going to have any major-type explosions, we opted to back off," Bodine said in a phone interview.

"The danger we perceived and the fact that it was obviously a total loss … rather than put our folks in any kind of harm's way, we just decided to let it burn, which it did," he said.

Firefighters were monitoring smoldering areas in the store's interior into Wednesday evening.

"We were still getting flashes of fireworks now and again," he said.

The fire pretty much consumed the whole building, though the walls and a sagging roof remained standing.

"We've deemed the building unsafe to be in," said Bodine.

Contact Jeff Gearino at (307) 875-5359 or gearino@tribcsp.com