[carlos_dfc]

That sounds like a classic fireball meteor Rich - a fantastic (and rare) sight.
I'm outside - looking upwards - on most cloudless nights - for quite a lot of years now, and have only managed to see about 6 or 7 (outside of major meteor showers)

What happens is that the 'shock' pressure at the front of the meteor, as it punches it's way through the air, causes the main body of the meteor to fragment.
The fragments cannot escape the 'tunnel' that the meteor has made through the air, so they must go so far backwards, along the 'hole' that the meteor has made, before thay can fall earthwards.
These flashes are commonly known as 'shooters'

Those in the article, co-incided with the Lyrid meteor shower - which is known to produce more than it's fair share of fireballs.
Most people don't realise, but we are constantly being bombarded with small pieces of debris like this - and a meteor, even a big fireball meteor, can occur at any time.
There are also several regular 'showers' that occur when the earth passes through the trail of debris left beind by a comet - in fact these showers are happening almost constantly, it's just that most of then don't give spectacular shows, and so, don't become very well known.
We are curently 'in' the Sagittarid shower, which started mid-April, peaks around May 20th, and continues into July - maximum is only about 5/hr though, and most are small.
Next big, well-known, shower, probably the Perseids (12-13 August)