RENO, Nev. >> An expert says a fireball seen across a wide swath of the West from Reno to San Francisco might have broken up over the Pacific Ocean.

Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society says his New York-based group has received about 50 reports from people in California and Nevada who saw the brilliant streak of light at 5:21 Thursday morning.

Lunsford says while most reports about the fireball came from the San Francisco Bay area, it also was seen around Reno, San Diego and Redding, Calif.

Most people described seeing an intense flash of blue or white light heading from east to west that lit up the landscape.

Lunsford says the fireball might have been the size of a small car, and it disintegrated five to 50 miles above Earth.