My girlfriend and I were outside a half-mile away when we heard the explosion. It was so loud we thought a bomb had been dropped on our town. We heard the echos go for miles throughout the Shenandoah Valley for up to 30 seconds after the initial blast. We saw the huge black smoke coming from down the street, so we jumped in the car and raced to find it was coming from the strip mall that had Hometown Music, a business I frequented and was owned by my girlfriend’s coworkers family. There was nothing standing, just flames as tall as the trees and rubble and glass scattered everywhere. We parked down the street and walked to where the footage was taken, out of the way of the firefighters, and at a safe distance. The video was taken about 20-25 minutes after the blast and shows right when the firefighters were finally able to use their crane and start extinguishing the blaze. People we talked to at the scene said that if they were inside, their entire building shook. And one man we talked to who was from Dayton, the town next to Harrisonburg, said that he was also outside when it happened and the blast was so loud he thought it happened in his town, but followed the smoke to find it here in Harrisonburg.