Going across sky. Thought it was airplane at first...until it started melting.

Had just gotten home and was outside smoking a cigarette when I saw a light going across the sky.  I thought it was a plane.  It stopped all of a sudden and just stayed there.  All of a sudden it turned bright red and appeared to be on fire.  It started dripping like plastic would if heated.  I ran in and called 911 because I still thought it was an airplane.  The operator thought I was a crank call.  She put me on hold for about 2 minutes and got back online and asked me to tell her exactly what I was seeing.  I explained it to her and she told me that she had about 50 other calls coming in on the same thing.  My husband at the time was out video-taping it.  She asked me if she could have the fire department come over to look at the tape.  The fire chief arrived and watched the tape and shook his head and asked what we thought of ufo's.