Unidentified floating object
On the fourth of July, situated between an airport and a fireworks display, Denise and I looked behind us and saw the object in the attached picture floating from the sky.
At first I was thinking it might be a weather balloon… and other explanations were quickly dismissed. We couldn't quite figure out how far it was away either, being that it was dark… until it dropped like a rock. I ran and picked it up.
It was a parachute… and I think it had something to do with the fireworks seeing how there was a smoldering chunk of debris at the center bottom point. I beat someone to it too. Too bad it's not worth anything. 
July 8th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
We used to make these as kids; caused all sorts of confusion and “UFO” sightings. We used a few cotton balls soaked in kerosene as “fuel”. First we filled it with hot air from a hair dryer, then when it sarted to rise, we lit the cotton. The balloon would float away into the night sky, glowing, and stay aloft for maybe 1/2 hour. It wouldn't come down until the fire went out so we told ourselves it was “safe”.
I think that is what you found.