Bright orange *something* over the gulf

My husband and I were attending a wedding at a banquet hall on the beach. We stepped onto the outside deck to watch the twilight glow on the horizon. Directly on the beach (maybe a quarter mile north) we saw a bonfire. Something took over very near to it. I initially thought it was a flare gun because of the arc. But then it just kept going higher and higher. It sped up, and turned south, heading out perpendicular to the beach. My husband then thought it was a drone, but then it sped up way too quickly. We then guessed it was a helicopter, but it went eventually went way too high. It eventually faded out into the atmosphere. Absolutely no idea what it was , but we live immediately next to an AFB, and within the flight path of Tampa International. We've seen dozens of varieties of aircrafts, and this was different.