© Christian Murdock, The Gazette
An apparent meteor grounded heavy air tankers fighting the Springer fire near Lake George for nearly two hours Wednesday afternoon, leaving firefighters without air support.
But the fiery phenomenon left people from as far away as New Mexico in awe.
The planes were near Lake George when a pilot noticed debris falling from the sky, said Ron Roth, spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center. The pilots were not sure whether it was "space junk" or a meteor, Roth said.
"We're just glad it quit," Roth said. "A rather odd phenomenon."
Several other reports pointed to a rare, once-in-a-lifetime sighting.
Six reports of a meteor - seen from Winter Park, Colorado Springs and Raton, N.M. - were received by Chris Peterson, a research assistant with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The American Meteor Society received seven separate reports, mostly from Colorado Springs.
"These things happen all the time, but usually they just aren't seen during the day," Peterson said.
It likely wasn't one of the more than 22,000 pieces of "space junk" floating around the earth.
Officials at the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which tracks man-made objects that threaten North America, did not report any scheduled entries or objects over North America, said Lt. Col. Mike Humphreys, a spokesman.
Comment: It's possible that a passenger jet was downed by an overhead meteor or cometary explosion in late May 2009:
What are they hiding? Flight 447 and Tunguska Type Events
This is the third (at least) such event in the US alone this year.
2 April 2012 April 2 Texas daytime fireball confirmed, another Meteor seen in Chicago Wednesday
23 April 2012 Second 'Rare' Daytime Fireball Explodes Over US This Month, Van-sized Meteor NOT part of Lyrid Shower