Hundreds of people in Alberta and B.C. took to social media to report seeing a giant fireball illuminate the night sky late Monday, and the RCMP told media it received dozens of calls about what seemed to be the same event. 

Posting to Twitter from locations as far apart as Calgary and Hornby Island, B.C., the amazed stargazers described seeing a flaming object turn the sky an eerie green before fading into a dark orange as it approached the horizon. 

CBC News received multiple emails describing the flash. Some described a loud bang that shook homes and high rise buildings.

Kevin Skrepnek, chief fire information officer for B.C., tweeted that he was on a patio in Nelson when "the entire sky lit up.

"Huge boom about 1m later," he wrote. 

Skrepnek later said he initially thought it was a power surge.

"Then, to the east, I saw a reddish fireball streak and break up," he said in a brief statement posted on Twitter.

"Nothing happened afterward, then within 60 seconds there was a massive sound (like a long, rolling thunderclap) for about five seconds."

Skrepnek added that the wildfire smoke still sitting over large swaths of Alberta and B.C. likely intensified the flash of light. 

While there were some reports that parts of the object may have hit the ground — which would then make it a meteorite — this has not been confirmed and a number of landing locations conflicted with others. 

CBC News has not independently confirmed videos posted to Twitter claiming to have captured the spectacle, many on automated security cameras. 

RCMP Staff-Sgt. Troy Gross told CKNW in Kelowna that police received calls from places such as Nelson, the Okanagan Valley and the Comox Valley in B.C., and from as far away as Calgary. 

He said it's unusual for so many people across such a large area to make similar reports.

"Of course we have no idea what it is, but I'm assuming it's probably a meteor shower. It's obviously bright enough for people all over to see it."