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I used to work at Edwards AFB and have witnessed a number of shuttle landings and I've never seen it as a fireball!
Every time I've seen it it was a white dot in the sky that fell like a rock and glided to a perfect landing.
I wonder if they were having problems over CA and you witnessed it?

When it lands in California it has already bled off much of its speed before landing. Since it was landing it Florida this time it was still traveling very fast through the atmosphere when it passed over California - lots of friction, so lots of heat.

BTW, at the press conference it was obvious that the NASA guys thought they were talking about the observatory in Hawaii, but the Owens Valley is just over to the east side of Sierra. I think that's the Long Tom area and we feel their earthquakes here at my home sometimes. So they would have seen the shuttle after 5:53 which would have been after sensor problems so maybe he did see something that wasn't plasma. If he did actually see something it must not have been something noticed onboard because they were still in contact with the shuttle for a few more minutes.