(meteorobs) Fireball seen over San Bernardino County, CA

[Robert Verish]

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Fireball seen over San Bernardino County
BEATRIZ E. VALENZUELA Staff Writer
July 1, 2008 - 11:42AM

Numerous calls from across the county about a fireball in the sky falling near the San Bernardino mountains came into San Bernardino County Fire Dispatch Tuesday morning, according to officials.


Countless people, including fire personnel, from the Nevada stateline to Temecula reported seeing a brightly colored streak falling from the northwestern sky at about 10:40 a.m., said County Fire Dispatch Supervisor, Tom Barnes.


Search crews from several agencies including Barstow, Arrowhead and Cal Fire have all attempted to track down a landing site, but have come up empty.


All of the calls described a fast-moving object falling near the San Bernardino Mountains area.


The original call came in from a Lake Arrowhead man who thought the object may have been an aircraft in trouble, Barnes said.


After sending out fire crews and not finding any wreckage, investigators began to look into the possibility it may have been a meteor or some other space rock.


“When I saw it I thought, ‘Oh my god!’” said Dan Bowman, 68, of Apple Valley.


He said he was amazed at how visible the object was despite it being daylight and thought that it may have landed near the Bell Mountain area or maybe even the Stoddard Wells Recreation area.


Fire crews from Clark County Nevada Fire near the stateline say they saw it as well, Barnes said.


Bowman was on his way to pick up parts for his antique truck when he noticed a bright object speeding towards Earth.


Officials for the Air Force Space Command are currently looking into whether the object is something that the office tracks on a regular basis, but had no explanation on what it may be.


“I saw it for three of four seconds,” Bowman said. “The front of it looked like a glacier blue and then it got orangey. The tail-end of it was white like big shattered mirrors.”


Barstow Fire Protection District personnel was dispatched to the Calico area and found no evidence of a meteorite hitting the ground.


Some Barstow fire officials also saw the object and reported that it may have burned up in the atmosphere before it made impact, Barnes reported.


Investigators are still looking into the incident.

Beatriz E. Valenzuela can be reached at 951-6276 or at BValenzuela at vvdailypress.com.