1) I went out on the front porch to smoke a cigarette. 2) I always look up in the sky just to check out the moon and stars. 3) At first glance, I saw it through a pine tree and thought it was a plane with typical strobes/landing lights. I quickly realized, as it emerged from behind the tree, that it was not separate lights like 2 wings and a tail. It was from a single source and it was NOT a plane! Nor was it a meteor! 4) It looked exactly like the flames of a campfire with varying shades and combinations of red, orange, and yellow, flickering/licking just like any "normal" fire/flames. It was not a ball shape with the flames moving in all directions of a sphere. I could not discern any shape at all, but the flames seemed to only rise vertically and to the sides. Nothing moving downward. Again, it looked like a campfire in the sky. Campfires have a flat base because they're on the ground and the flames flicker upward and outward. I was looking toward the West. It came toward me, in straight level flight, moving at a slight angle to my right from SW to NE. It then changed direction abruptly and instantly, moving at a right angle toward the North, still in straight and level flight. Again, it changed direction abruptly and instantly and went perfectly vertical. It went straight up for a bit and stopped and hovered stationary. The stopping was instantaneous. There was no deceleration, and then, after it stopped moving, it started to slowly fade out and vanished. It went out just like any "normal" flame burns out. It just gradually flickered away to nothing and it was gone. The whole event lasted 2 or 3 minutes at the most. 5) I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I was dumbfounded and didn't know what the Hell to think or what to do. I finished my cigarette and came back inside the house and thought about whether or not to tell anybody for fear of being ridiculed and called a nut. I decided I wanted to report it and see if maybe someone else saw the same thing and might corroborate my story. I sent a Facebook message to my next door neighbor, a news tip to the local TV station, and, obviously, this report. 6) I lost sight of it when it just burned out and faded away to nothing.