UFO seen over Coalinga wildfire

Photo of an alleged UFO (seen in upper right) near a wildfire in Coalinga.

Photo courtesy of MUFON.

While searching for recent UFO sightings on the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) website, I came across this 2006 sighting that occured in Coalinga back in 2006 during a wildfire. According to him his girlfriend is a wildfire photographer and while shooting pictures of a fire east of Coalinga caught a strange object in one of her photographs. The object wasn't seen at the time the photo was take, but was seen after when the photo was viewed.

The person goes on to say that there were no support aircraft in the area at the time and also claims that a fire official was so intrigued by the photograph that he asked for a copy of it.

Personally I'm not sure what was photographed. After viewing the photo I'm leaning towards it being a possible bird caught in flight (hence the blue of the object) as you can see another bird on the road. And since the object covers part of the power line it can't be that large in size as the power line is perhaps several hundred feet away. Still, it's inconclusive as to what it really is. Hopefully MUFON did an investigation into this and was able to determine what it really was.

MUFON report: Disc object inadvertently captured while photographing a grass fire.

My girlfriend is a wildfire photographer. After we had been together for several weeks and knew I wouldn't laugh, she showed me her UFO photo taken in 2006.

While photographing a grass fire East of Coalinga CA, she set her camera to auto fire at one frame per second. In ONE frame, a disc shaped object with a dark circular dot on the underside appears. It does not show in timestamped frames one second before or after.

This was not noticed until the pictures were viewed later.

Under magnification, the object appears to eclipse a power line behind it!

A CalFire official was intrigued enough upon hearing about this photo, he asked for a copy.

I should note that no aircraft were dispatched on this fire and no other aircraft were observed in the area,

Coalinga's Whiskey Row

Whiskey Row circa 1910. Photo courtesy of Online Archives of California

Not many people may know this, but Fresno County had its own Wild West town back in the late 1800’s. The town of Coalinga was started when a railroad line was built out to the western part of the county to connect to Coaling Station A, which was then shortened to Coaling A, when then became Coalinga.

The town didn’t really develop much until about 1886 when oil was discovered. Soon the town began to grow as business came to town to cater to the workers on the oil fields. Front Street or known better as Whiskey Row, had at least thirteen saloons running up and down the street. There were also gambling dens and possibly houses of ill repute, all locations for fights and the occasional gun fight.

So what does this have to do with Weird Fresno? A Wild West town in Fresno isn’t very weird (though I think it’s pretty damn cool and makes me want to visit). Searching for ghost stories I came across one on GhostVillage.com (one of my favorite sites regarding all things paranormal). Here’s what they wrote:

Behind my street is a street called Whisky Row. It has been known to be haunted because in the 1930's old saloons and prostitutes were there. Many people on my street have told me stories of things that happened in their houses because our street is so close to Whisky Row.

My aunt, who lives right across the street from us, told me a story of a time when she was the only one home and she went to her bedroom for just a second -- when she came out all of the drawers and cabinets were open. We all laughed because none of us believed her. Later on that night I had been a little shaken up from the story we had heard earlier so I slept with my mom. In the middle of the night I woke up to a sound -- I looked to the side of me and I saw a woman who looked very young (about 18) and she was wearing a very short dress. As I looked closer I saw that she was looking through my mother's drawer. It looked as if she was looking for something because she was moving the clothes around. She turned around at gave me a cold look. All of a sudden I got an ice-cold chill in my spine. I looked into her face and I could see that her makeup was running and black mascara was all around her eyes. She had a handprint that was very clear on her right cheek. As she whipped around quickly I could hear her long fingernails scraping the bottom of the drawer as she still searched for something that was missing. I fell asleep that night listening to that horrible sound.

Me and my mother got up early the next morning and I told her what had happened during the night when I heard something like the sound of many people whispering all at once, but before I could think anything of it my four-year-old brother starts crying and calling my mother yelling, "Mom they are talking to me." Over and over again. When we finally got into the room his whole bed was shaking

That was six days ago and numerous things similar to that have been happening since.

Link to the original article on GhostVillage can be found here.

The person did not leave a name, but interestingly enough left an e-mail. I plan on contacting them, even though the post was written over 8 years ago, and see if I can find anything else out.

I’m not saying the entire area of what used to be Whiskey Row is haunted, but I love the idea that Fresno County had its own Wild West town and it’s maybe a 90 minute drive away. Even if the town isn’t haunted, it’s still an interesting part of Fresno’s folklore and history that many not know about. Hopefully after reading this post that will change.

More Strange Lights on Interstate 5

I had recently posted a video showing strange lights being seen on the I-5 corridor between Coalinga and Kettleman City. Some new video has come to my attention, this time it was shot about 60 miles north of Bakersfield and once again seen on Interstate 5.

The object that was shot is different than what I previously posted. Instead of three bright white lights, there are several red strobe-like lights that blink in no discernible pattern.

The video below is quite long, you may want to fast forward to 0:46 to see the object. But throughout the video you can hear the concern and fear in the witnesses voices. Note they swear A LOT so be sure you are somewhere where this won't be a problem.

Unfortunately the poster of the video doesn't allow embedding of the video so I did a screen cap and linked the video to the image.

The video is definitely different than the other one. I actually found a site that had interviewed the witnesses in 2007. You can find the discussion here and a link to the report here for those who interested.

One of the posters theorized that the lights were from F-18's since Lemoore Naval Air Station is near by. I have to disagree with this. A friend of mine used to live under the flight path for the Fresno Air National Guard and I would see them fly over at night. Now granted they fly F-16's, but all military jets (as well as civil) have a red and green marker light. The object(s) in the video had no marker lights, just the blinking red strobe lights. I doubt this was some sort of black project. If the government was testing a new type of aircraft, why have blinking red lights advertising its location? I’m almost wondering if this was just a hoax, that someone had heard about the other sightings and decided to create their own sighing. Several ultra lights could have flown in formation with a strobe attached. But the witnesses claimed not to hear any engine sound, though the highway traffic may have drowned out such noise.

But it seems like a lot of work by the hoaxers in hopes of someone just happening to video tape it. And I don’t think they witnesses were part of the hoax, they seemed generally frightened. Could this craft be extraterrestrial in origin? And if so, what is, if any, it’s relationship to the lights in the other video? And why so many sightings in low populated area? I’m working on organizing a trip to this area in the summer time. Maybe if we’re lucky some answers can be found.

Interstate 5 Mystery Lights

For several years now mysterious lights have been seen in the night sky along the Interstate 5 corridor from Kettleman City to Los Banos. Witnesses have reported seeing a triangle shaped craft with a light at each point hover over the highway. The craft would fly over an overpass (it has been seen over Manning Ave) making a 90 degree bank as it would then make a steep dive as it crossed over the highway flying roughly 15’ to 20’ above traffic before making another 90 degree bank turn then descend to nearly 2’ above the ground, looking like it was about to land before ascending at nearly a 45 degree angle to start the pattern of flight all over again. Witness report that it would make the same looping pattern until they lost sight of it. They would try to get away from it as quickly as possible, afraid that the craft would crash into them when it buzzed them flying over the highway.

No red, green, or strobe light that is standard on a conventional craft has been seen. Just three bright lights are the only source of illumination from the craft. There are reports of the craft being a thin wedge shape, but this can’t be confirmed. No sound has been heard as well.

What these lights are is not certain. Sightings from as early as 2002 to as recent as August 2005 have been reported. Some speculate it is nothing more then a crop duster which would make sense since the stretch of highway cuts through agricultural land, but one has to wonder about its erratic flight patterns. One would think that the FAA would find out who this rouge pilot is before someone was hurt. But three years later and it is still spooking drivers who happen to drive along the Interstate 5 corridor between the small farm towns of Coalinga and Kettleman City.

This had been a post I had done on a blog years ago. Reason why I am reposting here is that I came across a video on YouTube that was a short clip of the same three lights described above on Interstate 5. Can't be certain, but this looks like the same craft. Judge for yourself.

I'm thinking of making an expedition to Kettleman City this summer and bring some still and video cameras and see if some evidence can be captured. If anyone else is interested let me know. You don't have to believe in UFO's, my goal is to see what is going on and to try to explain it.