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OLYPHANT, Pa. — Olyphant police removed hundreds of illegally stored fireworks from a vacant business in the downtown on Monday. Police say the property owner was "risking catastrophe."

"Your neighbors, they have no clue that you have thousands of pounds of fireworks sitting there and stuff like that," said Glenn Matra, owner of Bada Boom Fireworks in Blakeslee. "Yeah, it's a little dangerous."

Matra owns and operates four fireworks stores in the commonwealth. After 18 years in business, he knows there's a lot of red tape and regulations. 

Matra said sellers must meet a host of requirements to adhere to state law. 

"You have to go on the website and print out the application. You have to have a burglar alarm system. At least $2 million of insurance. The licensing fee is an annual fee and depends on the size of your store. So it's $7500. Being a new store is an additional; I believe it will cost you $10,000 for the first year," said Matra. 

"New stores have to have sprinkler systems in them. You have to have the proper certificate of occupancy. That's about everything. Just a few things, to say the least."

But that's not all. Any brick and mortar store has to be away from other structures.

"It has to be a freestanding building," said Matra. "There can't be nothing connected to it. The state does send inspectors here, and they check our buildings."

Police did not say whether the property owner had been selling the fireworks seized from the building in Olyphant, but the chief said they were not licensed. Officials are beginning to inventory all the merchandise and make sure it's all legal. 

"If you see just regular brown paper and stuff like that, it's probably not the consumer line of fireworks," said Matra.

Matra said the 12% fireworks tax, stacked on top of PA's 6% sales tax, may be driving some buyers to black-market sellers as prices and costs go up like a Roman candle.

"When someone comes up, and they buy a $100 item, it's really $118.75 when they're done," said Matra. "That does give them an advantage because they could sell it for cheaper than us because they don't have our overhead."

Olyphant Police are working with state and federal agencies. Police expect to file charges in the case, pending investigation.

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