Actually, you can get some amazingly good results from Carrara with the particle generator. The trick is in using the particle shader to control texture maps on the particles themselves. I've got some that I can't show due to some written agreements but let me see what I can put together. And, in the real world of faking explosions, many times it's easier and faster to put explosions in AFTER the render with AE, Motion, Combustion or Particle Illusion. However, at the rate of innovation in all 3d applications, things like Fume may be trickling down to other programs faster than you might anticipate. Check out this link.