Great Ball of Fire!: Other Balls of Fire II

This continues other people's UFO reports and videos (Please see Fire in the Sky: Great Balls of Fire!).  These words capture their encounters with fireball UFOs, flaming orbs and other obnoxious burning celestial intrusions. Some of these reports reveal a tone that anyone who has seen a UFO will understand, a sort of wide-eyed nonchalance while standing in cold water, waiting to be told what to do next. In all of these accounts, you will find few where the UFO is actually within one mile of the observer; unlike our sighting. Most of the accounts you'll find reveal fireballs that are clearly in the heavens-and thusly meteors. BTW, this concludes my Fire in the Sky series. But don't think this is over.

This shows a fireball similar to our sighting, but farther away. (Not in Whittier Area.)

This next encounter is fascinating and terrifying on different levels. On one level, I could empathize with her comment about the way her encounter affected her well after the event. But this particular event may still be going on (and I strongly suspect that it is):

Occurred: 9/24/2009 22:13

Location: Norwalk, CA

Shape: Sphere

Duration: Still there

Sphere shaped firework over Norwalk

On 7/26/01 we first saw the unexplained object hovering up in the sky there were 2 I thought nothing of it until my daughter said it was freaky because it would not move so I went to look and yes for about 15 minutes they just hovered we went to the front yard to just look at them one came real close to our home after about an hour it came down hovered then soon after just shot up into the sky they both disappeared. It was so strange and scary I didn't know what to do so I called the news no answer I called the Air Force they said it was nothing but yet 2 minutes later 2 jets flew over.

I was pregnant at the time and you hear so many stories I was afraid that maybe they were here for the baby. I stayed up all night alerted by every sound not knowing what it was. By the morning no news of any sightings were on any news channels.

I did not go to work because I started having light contractions. Me and my children were the only ones out there and the next day I gave birth I was still worried about so called abductions when I was sent back to my room my baby wasn't with me I started to panic and asked the nurse said the doctor would come talk to me. I was terrified not knowing until I asked to see my baby he was in CCU he had a few medical issues water in the lungs and would need to stay a few days. I always wondered if it was because of that night. My kids tease my son that he is an alien baby or we call them our friends now. 

Tonight my dog made a weird noise

Great Ball of Fire!: Other Balls of Fire I

In my effort to find other UFO fireballs (Please refer to my first article in this series, called Great Ball of Fire) in the Whittier Narrows and surrounding area, I was stunned to find so many UFO sightings in the area—almost every month going back at least five years. What’s even more stunning; the large amount of UFO fireball sightings. It’s staggering to think, these accounts are mostly from regular people reporting to Law Enforcement, so there must be many more UFO sightings not reported. Case-in-point: we never reported our fireball to the police. For the sake of brevity I’ve selected only those accounts that most closely resembled our sighting. Also, sightings that were clearly meteors were excluded.

It’s fascinating to hear other people’s sightings. Some are scant and others rich in detail. The first one wasn’t even a month ago!

Consider!

Occurred: 7/14/2010 11:15

Location: El Monte/Monterey Park (between), CA

Shape: Teardrop

Duration: 1 minute

Gray oval teardrop shaped craft flying over LA County

I was riding on the Metro link from San Bernardino to the Cal State LA station, seated on the side of the train looking south. Listening to music and watching the scenery pass by I looked up to the sky at about a 35 to 45 degree angle and saw what at first I took to be an airliner that was traveling east to west.I quickly realized that the shape was not right and that it was not a more whitish color. It had more of a gray metallic look, and there seemed to be no wings. This happened rather fast and when I wanted to try to study it more the train passed a few buildings that blocked my view, and when the train passed the buildings, it was gone.

Great Ball of Fire!: More Fireballs?

A UFO sighting would have been unusual by its nature.  Not many people I’ve spoken to actually have seen something that couldn’t be explained as a satellite or aircraft.  Indeed, many have seen “something”, but when pressed, often explain it away themselves.  I have to admit, I've secretly hoped to meet a person who has seen a "real UFO".

The feeling

The accounts I’ve seen on TV etc., mostly show UFOs as generally in the Flying Saucer or V-shape category. I've even  read about cigar-shaped craft and metal spheres.  And all of these appear to be at least solid in appearance; could even be piloted by some alien teeny bopper clandestinely taking his father’s tube for a joyride.

Nay, what we saw was a monstrous fireball! (Please read the first article in this series Fire in the Sky for even more weirdness.)

If I didn’t have a witness to my UFO sighting, I might have doubted the event ever happened at all. I’d never heard of a "UFO Fireball”, leave alone one hovering over the ground for any prolonged period of time-especially one that “shape-shifted” from a small point of light.

After all, from the time of our sighting, I’ve only heard of one other fireball sighting, years ago, and it was moving rapidly. As I began to relive the moments and feels surrounding our close encounter, for this blog, I began to really wonder if others had seen similar objects in the same area, basically my home town area at the time.

So I began to dig, and was shocked to uncover the large number and frequency of fireball sightings in the Whittier (California) area, let alone the hundreds of other UFO sightings in the same area alone. Strangely, in reading these accounts I was overcome with a sense of relief, shock, wonder then an odd feeling that has no name. Many other people have experienced close encounters similar UFO fireballs!

Their REAL accounts in the next Fire in the Sky!

Great Ball of Fire!: The Return

Image by kurafire via Flickr

I want to see a real UFO like this.

I want to the that frightening Fireball again; or do I? No, on second thought I don't ever want to see something so frightening, so dangerous and something I may not survive "next time" again.

On the other hand, my friend, my only witness Orlando, did say that he thought this was not the last time he would see something in the sky again. He didn't seem to be impressed by what he said. I wouldn't mind seeing a "real" flying saucer, but a fire ball?

What haunts me is the orb started off looking very much like a regular street light and was moving at about 20-30 mile per hour (not really fast) horizontally across and along the river in the opposite direction (although it was difficult to tell because I was walking toward the south). How could it start off so small and end as a gigantic fireball. Here is a progression of stills I put together to study the UFO's trajectory. Note the "orangery" of the lights. This is where the UFO came from.

Below the "YouTubed" version. It's an edited version of a little bit of tape we shot at the site where I and my friend Orlando experienced our sighting. Something strange-even for a UFO! This video is us, excitedly returning to the site of our close encounter, trying to describe the object we saw; and contemplating the scene. It was eerie because we were not entirely sure if we would see the fiery orb again.

Also, I wonder, if any particles from this burning object touched our bodies. It was radiant and large. It burned for up to two minutes in front of us. Were we somehow touched by this monster?

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?

Great Ball of Fire!: The Location

If you have ever seen a UFO, you never forget it, or stop thinking about it. It isn't like any other event. Because of the implications, a UFO, especially a strange one, can haunt you; if you saw it at night, add more luminance and strangeness. If you have had an encounter, the drive to find out everything about your sighting: "who else saw it, and what did they see? What was it? Where exactly did it happen?" etc., can be compelling.

But the first thing I wanted to establish was where we sighted it, so I dialed-up Google Earth. After some triangulation, I came up with coordinates. Below is the areal map:

This image shows a bird's eye view of the area.

Notice the markings. The point near the power line tower is where we saw the fireball stop and burn up. I cannot be completely be sure that it actually stopped, but it appeared to. Why did it stop? This area is just north of the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area. As you can see, the 605 Freeway snakes down within yards of the UFO area. This is a very well traversed freeway at all hours-being part of the L.A. area freeway system. The point is, at least scores of people on the freeway would have had to have seen the fireball hovering above them. Where are these people? This was a vision from Hell that was close to the ground, close to homes and stables and close to us!

Great Ball of Fire!

On February 18, 2009, in the 8:00 PM darkness, my friend Orlando and I were hiking the bike trail along the west bank of the San Gabriel River. We started from Peck Road and proceeded north (Toward the San Gabriel Mountains). When we got to about a quarter mile passed the Pomona (60) Freeway, we decided to turn back.

First in a Series

Orlando went ahead of me, as he wanted to walk faster to exercise a bit. After several minutes I glanced across the river to observe a scene that included the shadows of trees and various lights behind them; including street lights and bill boards near the freeway about a half away—if that. As most street lights nowadays, they appeared almost amber or orange.

Suddenly I saw what at first appeared to be one of those "amber" street lights start moving toward the North (the opposite direction) along the other bank in the distance. It would have had to be very low to the ground for me to have to look twice to see if one of those street lights was somehow moving, as if I were seeing things—I was.

This light appeared to be orange and very bright, eerie and alien. As it moved it must have been ascending, but early on it was moving or floating quite parallel to ground. I realized that it was probably in front of the trees on the other bank very close—probably a little farther than a quarter mile.

I began to run down the bike path (South) toward Orlando.  I wanted him, or anybody else to see this with me. By this time very far in front of me around a bend so I couldn't see him. It seems like I ran a long time to catch up with him. As I got closer and closer to him, I yelled several times for him to stop. When he finally did I ran up to him pointing to the object that was by this time floating high in the sky, and said: “Orlando what’s that? What’s that? Is it a helicopter? A UFO? Jesus! Is that a helicopter?” He replied “no it’s not”. We both observed it for a minute; it and it appeared to be heading somewhat in our direction. He said “what is it?” I said I don’t know. It was mesmerizing.

By this time the object seemed bigger and it had no particular shape, more like a "round" but amorphous in nature. It was bright and moved through the air slowly and appeared to change from orange to white and it appeared hot. It looked like a hot blob in a lava lamp. As we observed it was definitely getting closer. I could actually see flames; it was definitely on fire. I began to get frightened because it looked like it was turning toward us.

Similar to what we saw.

But suddenly, it appeared to stop about a half mile away, on the other bank of the river near a power tower. It made no sound, it just burned. It was enormous. Then it started to burn out. The fire was ending. It was as if sections of it were burning off one by one. As it burned it was dropping what appeared to be the burnt remnants, like any other thing burning out.

As it burned away I tried to look in the area in the low sky where the UFO fireball had just been, thinking I’d see what caused the flames or if I could see anything at all. But I didn’t see anything else. Also, there were no clouds were the object burned away and no smell, like there would have been if fireworks had exploded there. But no, it simply vanished.

We couldn't stop thinking about it for days, and even now I see it, in my mind, almost every day.