Hey NASA, Was That Space Junk?

We saw something last night. Did we see what we (now) think it was?

It was a trip coming home after dark from buying more paint and supplies, heading west along Peoria just as we hit Sun City. The commercial area was gone, so lights mostly consisted of the occasional street light and holiday  decorations still up. One home along that route every year wraps two very tall palm trunks in ropes of white miniatures, turning them into what appears to be almost solid white poles. We had almost hit that spot when there was a sudden red and white giant "sparkler" sailing through the sky to our north. The term sparkler describes its appearance, but belies the speed and power exhibited as it crossed the sky.

Rich was in the passenger seat, his window giving him a longer view of it than I got. It came from behind us on our northeast, and ended in black just ahead of us, still above buildings or trees, from my perspective.

I referred to it as a sparkler because some kind of fireworks was my first impression. It was a single ball  of white sparks flying off in all directions from the front and sides, red ones from the rear. I had enough time to be furious that some idiot would set off fireworks (because Christmas? Quanza? New Years? pure mischief?) in a place where everything was dry enough for a fire to grow way beyond expectations despite some recent rain, when Rich pronounced it to be space junk.

We discussed our different impressions after viewing it for about three seconds, when it went dark while still airborne. Rich had a better and longer view than I had with the car roof in my way, and thus he perceived it as much farther away, as well as traveling much faster than any fireworks could achieve, especially sideways. Tossing around ideas and literal viewpoints while continuing on the way home, his idea tended to win out. I cannot recall actually seeing any firework traveling horizontally at that speed, much less having red sparks shooting out the back like  a propulsion system. I was also so relieved it hadn't landed and started a fire, that I didn't feel any need to push my initial view of its identity. 

With a day's reflection now behind me, I am left with curiosity. Was it in fact space junk? Could a meteor not of human origin shoot out sparks in two colors? Above all, is there a way to find out what it was, whether others saw it too, and if so, could that pinpoint how high it was before presumably disintegrating?

NASA, I'm looking at you guys. Any answers?