Bright orange ethereal ball hovering above the street ascends up into the sky and flys east until it disappears into the distance

I was driving north on the main road in my town and I observed what looked like a fireball the size of a cantaloupe hovering above the sidewalk about 30 feet up. As I was approaching it, it quickly shot up into the sky while also moving east. Luckily, I was able to catch a pretty close glimpse of it before it ascended. I observed a bright orange ball of flames. The center of it looked dense and its shape was semi-spherical. There were what looked like ethereal artifacts surrounding it, moving similarly to fire but it clearly was not flames. Eventually, the object just faded off into the distance.