Reports of people seeing multi-colored lights filling the snow-covered skies over Fort Duchesne early Sunday morning has become a topic of debate in the Basin.

Some think it was a Unidentified Flying Object in the area, others say it was a spectacular light show from a power outage.

“The outside was green, you could see the trees, you could see the basketball hoop just like a light was on, a floodlight, it was so cool,” said Corey Serawop, who was the first to post a video interview on Facebook of what he described as a UFO sighting. “I still get chills thinking about that, like it's just so unreal,” he said.

He and his wife Lauren Serawop created a Facebook group “Ft. Duchesne UFO,” and by Monday night they had more than 90 followers. Of those followers and friends of the Serawops, 15-20 have reported seeing something similar to what Corey described from Randlett to Whiterocks.

What Corey saw was bright flashes of blue and red lights, then a bright flash of green followed by darkness.

He was working the overnight shift at the Red Pine Residential Treatment Center in Fort Duchesne when the power went out just after 6:15 a.m., and he and his co-workers saw bright flashes of light outside.

At first, Corey thought it was police cars, but then when he and his co-workers stepped outside they discovered the flashing lights were coming from above the building.

He said once he saw the lights he was captivated by them.

“It captures you, you're like motionless and you don't know what to say or what to think,” Corey said.

He said the lights weren't like normal lights, not round. He also said he saw an outline of what he thought was the “ship.” The self-proclaimed sci-fi geek said he's always been a believer in UFOs to some extent, having seen other paranormal activities in the past.

“It's just like so unreal,” Corey said of the experience, “like you don't know what you're looking at.” He described the “ship” as being about 50 yards above his work, and spanning an area of about 500 feet.

Although Corey is positive he saw a UFO in the sky over his work in Fort Duchesne, Moon Lake Electric manager of operations Paul Betts said the bright lights in the sky Sunday morning were most likely caused by a blown transformer around 6:30 a.m. Feb. 12.

“We had an insulator inside the sub station that failed,” Betts said. “It simply shut the transformer down.

“This would have been a big flash of light, it was overcast that morning it was snowing... I'm sure all they were seeing was this reflection in the clouds that morning, that's all it was,” he said of reports that UFOs were seen.

Power was knocked out for about 2.5 hours in Randlett, Fort Duchesne, Gusher and Hilltop, Betts said. Moon Lake Electric restored power by 9 a.m.

But even with that as an “explanation” for the sighting, people who witnessed the bright lights were posting their stories online and sharing them with friends.

In one other video interview on the Ft. Duchesne UFO webpage Corey's uncle and his cousin reported seeing “rainbow-colored lights” outside their home in the early morning and heard a humming noise; they even said they think a “ship” landed in Fort Duchesne.

No one has posted any videos or pictures of the Sunday UFO sighting or any photos of a possible landing area on the Facebook page, but with all of the comments, this recent “sighting” is attracting UFO specialists from across the nation.

Owner of Skinwalkerranch.org Ryan Skinner, who lives in Wisconsin, called the newspaper to find out what we had heard. Although he owns the website skinwalkerranch.org, Skinner said he has no contact with the owner of the actual Skinwalker Ranch in Fort Duchesne Robert Bigelow.

Skinner said the consistency of the individual reports are “pretty rare.”

“This is a big deal there's so many witnesses,” Skinner said. “This one is really off the scale.”

Corey said he posted his story online not to get famous or create controversy but because it was such a rare sight.

“It's just something that I saw, I wanted to put up there because how many times in your lifetime can you say that you saw a UFO,” he said.

To hear Corey's account you can visit YouTube and search for “Corey UFO Interview.”

Also the Hyper-Anomalous Expedition Research Organization, H.E.R.O. Paranormal is posting updates on this sighting on its site http://site.skinwalkerranch.info.

Betts said the power outage was isolated and restored quickly. For future outages, Betts encourages customers to call 435-722-5400 to report them so crews can act quickly.