Rocky Fire defies odds: 'You can't outrun it. It's like an explosion'

The Rocky fire has become the blaze of perplexing whims, baffling fire officials with a mercurial nature that computer models and simulations could not predict. Sweeping across three counties in Northern California, the fire has plowed through containment lines, hurdled over a highway even managed to create its own weather system.
-"This fire wants to do whatever it wants," Cal Fire spokesman Jason Shanley said. "It's defying all odds. Thirty year, 40 year veterans have never seen this before."
- Perhaps the most frustrating trait of the massive blaze 67,000 acres, about the size of Sacramento has been its ability to suck up heat, energy and moisture, then shoot those elements into the air to form a mushroom top of smoke and ash. Every so often, that plume crashes to the ground, either because of its own weight or because of a temperature drop, which sends flames and wind rushing around it in all directions.
- One fire behavior expert likened the effect to a child stomping into a puddle except that instead of water splashing everywhere, it's fire, heat and ash, along with winds that move up to 50 miles per hour. Source