Some Plattsburgh residents celebrated St. Patrick's Day a little early this weekend with St. Platty's Day. Crowds filled bars and overflowed onto the street, where a fire later left a local woman without a car.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, a couch caught fire on Clinton Street. The flames quickly spread to a car that parked next to the couch

"They had closed the street down, the entire street," said Joey McCarthey, a local resident. "It's just appalling to see that people would do that to our community."

City crews worked Monday to clear the streets of the leftover rubble and police investigators collected surveillance video from surrounding businesses.

"A number of factors would be taken into consideration in determining what charges would be applicable, but perhaps felony-level charges," said Plattsburgh Capt. Brad Kiroy.

Some area residents like McCarthey stopped by Clinton Street to survey the damage. "I don't know what possesses them to do such a thing, I really don't," he said.

"At that time of the day, people coming home from the bars downtown, it could be local folks, it could be college kids, it could be anyone really," Capt. Kiroy said.

The owner of the car is Lyndsey Tolman, a nursing major at Clinton Community College. She said nursing school is hard enough without dealing with the loss of her car and everything in it. She also said she has had a great response form the community, offering her rides and condolences. While the case is still under investigation as to whether the car fire was intentionally set, Tolman had a message for those involved: "I want them to realize the impact this has, even if it wasn't done maliciously," she said

City Police say this is not common for Plattsburgh. "It's rare but it does happen. We keep our eyes open for things like this." Capt. Kiroy said.

Contact the Plattsburgh Police with any information: 518-563-3411.