The UFO Clearinghouse

Case Number: 20342

Log Number: US-11062009-0009

Submitted Date: 2009-11-06 16:35 GMT

Event Date: 2009-02-18 20:00 GMT

Status: Submitted

City: Whittier

Region: California

Country: US

Longitude: -118.032

Latitude: 33.9683

Shape: Fireball

Distance: One mile or less

Weather: None

Entity Type: None

On February 18, 2009, in the 8:00 PM darkness, my friend Orlando and I were hiking the bike trail on the west bank of the San Gabriel River (near Whittier, CA). 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 turned back. Orlando went ahead of me, as he wanted to walk faster. 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 on the other bank in the distance about a mile away. As most street lights do nowadays they appeared almost orange.

Suddenly, I saw what at first appeared to be one of those lights start moving toward the North (the opposite direction) in a more horizontal manner, on 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 lights was somehow moving, as if I were seeing things�I was. This light appeared to be orange and very bright. As it moved it must have been ascending. I started running down the bike path toward Orlando (because I wanted him, or anybody else to see this with me) who was by this time very far in front of me. It seems like I ran a long time. As I got closer and closer to him, I yelled several times for him to stop. When he 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? Jesus! Is that a helicopter?� He replied �no it�s not�. We both observed it for a moment; it appeared to be heading somewhat in our direction. He said �what is it?� I said I don�t know.

It was mesmerizing. I found myself taking steps forward to get a good look. By this time the object seemed bigger and it had no particular shape. It could not have been as small as when I first saw it. It was bright and moved through the air slowly and appeared to change from orange to white and back; 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. But suddenly, it appeared to stop about a half mile away, across the river near a power tower. It made no sound, it just burned. It was enormous. Then it burned out. The fire ended. 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, but also it was silvery, as though it were liquid like molten metal. As it burned away I tried to look in the area in the low sky where it 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, like there would have been if fireworks had exploded there. But no, it simply vanished.