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Tuesday morning people as far away as Utah saw flaming object

It was a sight Visalia's Sheila Chartrand will never forget.
A fireball was streaking across the sky headed southeast Tuesday about 10:30 a.m. It appeared much larger than the sun, she said — larger even than a softball or CD held at arm's length.

"I just caught a glimpse of it as I stepped out onto my porch. It was the creepiest thing I've ever seen," she said. "It was so huge and so bright, all I could think of was, 'Oh, my god.' "

But her skeptical friends are having a hard time believing her story

"They all think I'm crazy," she said.

Chartrand wasn't the only one who saw the fireball, however. Reports flooded the San Bernardino County Fire Department dispatch center, and fire crews in Barstow also reported a flaming object in the sky.

The Tulare County Fire Department received no calls, but sightings of "an object as bright as the sun" came from as far away as Nevada and St. George, Utah.