Well, it was a bigun, that alone makes everything else seem "odd" to lots of people, who then look for "things" i'm no expert, but i'll throw a few ideas out there, it changed colour as it came through the atmosphere, and burnt up more/less oxygen, the bang could of been sound barrier booms?
but the thing that most makes me think it was just a big meteor is all the proper outdoors folk on here that actually saw it, and say is was a big meteor ?