THINK ABOUTIT UFO SIGHTINGS REPORT

1978: Police Officer Suffers Burns From a UFO, Kerman, California

At 3:32 a.m. on May 13, 1978, Kerman police officer Manuel Amparano was on routine patrol near Kerman High School when he spotted what looked like a fireball glowing inside a tree, roughly 100 to 150 feet off the ground, and assumed local teenagers had set a palm tree on fire. There were no palm trees there. As he reached for his patrol car’s spotlight to get a better look, a bright blue flash lit up the area, and the object shot off to the southwest at high speed. Amparano never left his car, windows rolled up against the cold. He still came away with blistering burns across his face and chest that doctors attributed to microwave exposure, and a patch of ground in the nearby cotton field where nothing would grow for years afterward.

Date: May 13, 1978

Sighting Time: 3:32 a.m.

Day/Night: Night

Location: Near the intersection of Del Norte and California Avenues, close to Kerman High School, Kerman, Fresno County, California (this site’s legacy field data listed “San Francisco, California,” which is incorrect; the case is consistently and specifically documented as occurring in Kerman, a small Fresno County community, corrected here)

Urban or Rural: Rural (small-town/agricultural area; sighting occurred over a nearby cotton field)

No. of Entity(s): Not Applicable

Entity Type: Not Applicable

Entity Description: Not Applicable

Hynek Classification: CE-II — Close Encounter of the Second Kind. Observation of an object in close proximity to the witness, with physical traces (burns, and a long-lasting barren patch of ground) and felt effects (heat/radiation-type exposure) documented.

Duration: Undocumented precisely; described as a short encounter ending in a rapid departure

No. of Object(s): 1

Description of the Object(s): A circular, glowing object resembling a round fireball or a setting sun, appearing as though a fire was burning inside a tree at first glance, hovering approximately 100 to 150 feet off the ground before lifting further, emitting a bright blue flash, then departing rapidly to the southwest

Shape of Object(s): Sphere

Size of Object(s): Undocumented

Color of Object(s): Glowing, fireball/setting-sun-like in appearance, with a bright blue flash immediately preceding departure

Distance to Object(s): Approximately 100 to 150 feet altitude; the witness observed it from inside his patrol car and did not leave the vehicle

Height & Speed: Approximately 100–150 feet altitude, initially stationary/lifting, then departing at rapid speed toward the southwest following a sharp turn

Number of Witnesses: 1 (Manuel Amparano, Kerman police officer)

Special Features/Characteristics: Witness suffered burns to his face and chest, described as similar to sunburn with white blistering on the areas of his body that had faced the object, along with about a week of light sensitivity comparable to post-eye-exam dilation; doctors at Fresno Community Hospital assessed the burns as consistent with microwave exposure; the object made no sound audible over the patrol car’s engine, and the car windows were rolled up throughout; an immediate search of the cotton field where the object had been seen found no physical evidence at the time, but a roughly circular area of the field reportedly would not support plant growth for years afterward, a site now part of an almond orchard; the Air National Guard, the weather bureau, and the Fresno Air Terminal all reported nothing unusual on radar that night

Case Status: Unexplained

Source: The Fresno Bee, interview with Manuel Amparano (http://www.fresnobee.com/lifestyle/story/5440245p-6425488c.html)

Summary/Description: While on routine patrol near Kerman High School at 3:32 a.m. on May 13, 1978, Kerman police officer Manuel Amparano observed a glowing, spherical object resembling a fireball hovering roughly 100 to 150 feet off the ground. As he reached to adjust his patrol car’s spotlight for a better look, a bright blue flash preceded the object’s rapid departure to the southwest. Amparano suffered sunburn-like blistering on his face and chest and about a week of light sensitivity, which doctors attributed to likely microwave exposure. No radar contact was reported that night by the Air National Guard, the weather bureau, or the Fresno Air Terminal, but a circular area of the cotton field beneath the sighting reportedly remained barren for years afterward.

Related Cases: None documented

Full Report

Manuel Amparano talks about his sighting of an unidentified flying object at 3:32 a.m. on May 13, 1978, as if it happened only days ago. Coming face-to-face with a UFO creates vivid memories. Amparano’s sighting is one of the most detailed of the many UFO sighting accounts documented over the years in the Fresno area. At the time, Amparano was working as a police officer in Kerman, a small Fresno County community.

“It was just a routine patrol,” Amparano said of the encounter years later. His early morning sweep took him past Kerman High School. At Del Norte and California Avenues, Amparano saw what he described as a circular-type object, similar to a round fireball or a setting sun, about 100 to 150 feet off the ground. He knew local teenagers had been setting palm trees on fire, and initially thought he had caught vandals in the act.

“Then I realized there were no palm trees in the area. The fire seemed to be inside of an oak or maple tree. This thing started lifting up,” Amparano said. He began adjusting his patrol car’s spotlight to get a better look, but just before he turned on the light, a bright blue flash lit the area. The object then made a sharp turn and moved away to the southwest at rapid speed. Amparano never left his car, and the windows were rolled up because of the cold. He heard no sound apart from his own engine.

The Air National Guard, the weather bureau, and the Fresno Air Terminal all told Amparano that nothing unusual had appeared on any of their radar screens that night. The encounter might have been dismissed as an optical illusion had it not been for the burns Amparano suffered on his face and chest. He described the sensation as like sunburn after falling asleep at a pool, with white blisters forming on the parts of his body that had faced the light, and about a week of light sensitivity comparable to how eyes feel immediately after a dilation exam.

Doctors at Fresno Community Hospital told Amparano the burns appeared consistent with microwave exposure. An immediate search of the cotton field where the sphere had been sighted turned up no physical evidence at the time. But for years afterward, nothing would grow in a roughly circular area of the field; the site is today part of an almond orchard. Amparano returned to work a few days later, with the only lasting effect being an increase in social attention following local coverage of the story. He continued working in local law enforcement until 1992, when he was injured breaking up a bar fight.

Looking back after more than two decades to consider what he saw, Amparano remained certain it was a genuine UFO, though he said he remained uncertain whether it represented a government project or something of non-human origin.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

Kerman, 1978 — A Rare Case With Documented Medical and Physical Trace Evidence

• Location corrected. This site’s legacy field data listed the location as San Francisco, California, which does not match any version of the case’s documented details. Every source reviewed for this entry places the sighting specifically in Kerman, a small Fresno County community roughly 200 miles southeast of San Francisco, near Kerman High School and Del Norte and California Avenues. The field data above reflects the documented location.
• Medical documentation is unusually strong for a UFO case. Physicians at a named hospital examined Amparano’s injuries directly and offered a specific clinical assessment (burns consistent with microwave exposure) rather than the injury resting solely on the witness’s own description. Independently documented medical findings of this kind are relatively rare in the broader UFO case record and meaningfully strengthen the case’s physical-evidence profile.
• The long-term barren ground is a distinctive, checkable physical trace. Unlike many claimed landing-trace cases where physical evidence is examined once and then lost or disputed, this case describes a persistent, multi-year effect on plant growth in a specific, identifiable field location, a claim that, while not independently tested by a soil scientist as far as this entry’s sources indicate, is a more durable and specific form of physical trace than a single scorch mark or impression.
• Multiple institutional radar checks, all negative, but genuinely checked. The Air National Guard, the weather bureau, and the Fresno Air Terminal were all directly contacted and confirmed no unusual radar contact that night. This is a negative finding, but it reflects an actual multi-institutional inquiry rather than an assumption, and should be weighed as a genuine (if inconclusive) data point rather than dismissed.
• A credentialed, on-duty professional witness with no evident motive to fabricate. Amparano was a working police officer on routine patrol at the time, not a civilian volunteering an extraordinary story; his sustained, well-documented public account over subsequent decades, combined with the corroborating medical and physical trace evidence, meaningfully distinguishes this case from single-witness sightings with no supporting evidence.

A Kerman police officer on a routine early-morning patrol mistook a glowing sphere for burning palm trees, watched it flash blue and vanish, and drove away with sunburn-like blisters a hospital attributed to microwave exposure. A patch of the cotton field beneath it wouldn’t grow anything for years. The Air National Guard, the weather bureau, and the airport tower all checked their radar and found nothing. Decades later, Manuel Amparano remained certain of what he saw, if not of where it came from.

“It was like a sunburn when you fall asleep at the pool. There were white blisters on the parts of my body facing that light.”

— Manuel Amparano, Kerman, California, May 13, 1978