[JohnZ]

It was not a comet. On an average clear night you could observe one or two meteors per hour depending on where you happen to be looking at any given time. These meteor streaks last less than a second (mostly) and are usually white-to-yellowish. What you saw could have been space junk (old non-operational satellites etc.) re-entering the earth's atmosphere. Re-entering junk has a tendecy to burn brightly for what appears to be a long time and shower sparks often giving-off differrent colors. Long tails are typical of "atomospheric grazers" and you usually see these just after twilight low on horizon. Paths are generally north-south or south-north. Big ones can generate quite a public stir. Saw a big re-entry of some space junk in the late 70's....very spectacular. Hope this answers your question. Here's a link for more info:

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/space_junk.html