Great Ball of Fire!: “What was it?”

February 18, 2009, 8.00 PM: At this point my friend and I are standing on the edge of a dark river together observing a light in the cold eight o’clock sky. After traveling north and ascending, the UFO began slowly approaching our direction. A minute or two later, the object stops across the river to our left about ¾ of a mile away, when it revealed itself as a fire ball, and burns up without proceeding any further or making any sound (not even a “burning” sound).  For some reason I wasn’t afraid as I observed it from being a pinpoint of orange light to the pulsating orange-white blob in the air. I began fretting when it was clear that this UFO was a fire ball and it was getting close to us. (Please refer to Fire in the Sky and Fire in the Sky: The Location)

Simulation but very close to "UFO" we saw.

The question has always been “what was it”? I have come up with two theories, one fun and the other not so. The first theory (the "not so fun") is the “fire ball UFO” was methane outburst from the landfill that for awhile the UFO passed right in front of. It's in an area where the is evidently an incinerator that burns methane on the hill. I know this because I've hiked the area and have seen the fire in the holes in the building-one night. It was impressive. It was like the “mouth of Hell”. The problem with this theory, however, is that when I first observed the object it was pretty much moving, flying or hovering close to the ground as a small bright orange light. This light appeared to come very close to the river, then ascended. We observed it for a awhile in the air before it descended and burned-up. A fire ball or flame blasted from the methane burner would have burned-up long before it had time to do anything. Even if it had mass, garbage doesn’t fly.

So that leaves us with theory number two: it was a balloon. No, not a weather balloon, but a hot air balloon-like device generally referred to as a "Sky Lantern". It can “fly” high and move around for awhile. Check out the video. I must say this comes close to what our UFO looked like at one point.

There is a  problem with this theory also ; the object we saw was enormous. At least the size of a house. Also, while the object was burning it dropped ash or what appeared to be hot molten something. Lastly, from the very beginning of my observance, it never looked like it was wavering or wafting. In fact, it appeared to be moving in straight "determined" lines. Imagine what I have just described compared to the relatively small object that the Lantern Makers are flying. Running out of theories over here anybody out there have any?