Fireball over Phoenix, AZ

The report, as filed

It was still daylight and clear in the SW corner of the sky. I went outside to let my dogs out. I was standing in the covered porch and I saw a huge red object rising on the other side of my neighbors tree. I saw the object through the tree branches. I stepped out into the pool area moving across my decking so I could see the object with out the tree. I was rising higher than the tree tops. I thought it was coming from the airport. It appeared as a fireball, it was not a plane. I watch the planes fly over all the time. As I watched a huge chunk of flame fell off and went towards the ground. It burnt up and was no longer visible. Then a smaller portion broke off and did the same thing as the first larger piece. The size of the fireball did not appear to change even though two pieces had fallen off. The fireball rose higher then completely disappeared. It did not fall to the ground, it simply disappeared. I logically thought it was a plane crash. There was a plane from Sky Harbor that was heading opposite of SW and was climbing into the clouds. This was absolutely a plane. A pilot would have been able to see the object from their cockpit. I called a local news company and there were no sightings or reports. This was not a meteor, or a shooting star. Those items are very easy to distinguish and identify. Has anyone else seen the object this evening? If so what was it? My cell phone was in the house. If I'd gone to get it I would have missed the display. A cell camera would not have given a good photo, the object was not near enough, it would have just looked like a light rather than a fireball.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #121684). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.