A bright star grew larged and exploded in the sky and faded away in a ten minute period.

After my little league game was over and the lights went out,  my teammates and their parents headed to the parking lot to go home.  Then one of the parents said what's that??? Another parent said your watching a star blow up!!!  And that's what it looked like. A bright star got brighter and brighter and bigger then it blew up.  Like 50 small fire balls shot out from the center of this bright pulsating star and slowly faded away. Many years later when in college I asked my Astronomy professors who said no ones ever seen a star blow up in the sky. But I do know what I witnessed.,
Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate.  PD