This article was published in the daily newspaper The Huddersfield Daily Examiner, England, on January 9, 2004.
Strange fires in the sky have been filmed soaring over Huddersfield.
Mother-of-three Dawn Crossley, of Hexham Green, Milnsbridge, caught an unidentified flying object on video as it flew over her home on December 16.
Exactly a week later, two more UFOs appeared in the night sky, to be spotted again by Dawn and other householders around Kirklees.
Dawn, 33, was chatting at home with a friend, Sue Sill, 45, when they saw the first UFO in the middle of December. It was 9.30pm.
"It was like a ball of fire with a small dome on top," said Sue.
Dawn immediately rushed to get a camcorder and took nine seconds of grainy footage showing the flickering ball of light heading through the night.
"It was zooming. It was fair moving," said Dawn.
And she could barely believe her eyes when, a week later, at home with husband Phil, two more UFOs appeared at the same spot.
"There were two more that came over. One just seemed to stop, then one disappeared to Crosland Moor." The second, which had started to head towards her house, then followed the first.
The objects were seen by pensioner Christine Beech, of Cherry Tree Close in Golcar, her husband, Brian, and daughter Bev.
A number of other UFO sightings were reported to the Examiner over the Christmas and new year period. They were similar to those seen by Mrs Beech and Dawn.
"The first one we saw was going really, really fast and it was a still night," said Dawn.
She estimated the other two hung motionless for about five minutes before moving off.
She has no idea what the objects could be.
"I don't know what they are. We came up with all sorts, and the more you think about it the more silly you get. There's no rational explanation you can come up with."
But Sue has no doubts.
"I think it's some sort of hoax. There was fire, or what looked like fire and flames. It looked like a ball of fire."
Dave Baker is chairman of the Yorkshire UFO Society and a sceptic. He said there could be a rational explanation for the sightings if someone had rigged a bin-bag over a flame, to create a makeshift hot-air balloon.
"The flames reflect on the inside of the bag - even if it's black. They can go as fast as the wind is going and can reach quite high altitudes," he explained.
He added that the human eye was notoriously bad at judging altitude and distance if the initial size of the object was unknown.
