We saw it in the Almeda Drive fire, and we saw it earlier in the Camp fire that destroyed much of Chico: a sense of all hell breaking loose, overwhelming the senses.
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) put considerable work into what happened in the Camp fire. They assembled a finely-detailed timeline of what happened in the Chico area, to better understand the sequence of events.
The research is meant to help in responses to future wildfires; we know they're coming. NIST researcher and fire protection engineer Alex Maranghides lays out the research.