From a property-preservation perspective, and a forest vitality perspective, some have argued that we actually do
too much to try and prevent
all forest-fires, and that the natural cycles of small isolated fires actually works out in the end. Keep in mind that the forests we do have around the world, came to be as large as they are in the absence of forest-management programs, or even regional fire-fighting staff in many places in the world and until just a few hundred years ago. So the notion that just letting forests and lightning do its thing has some rationality underlying it. One has to think beyond the last 50 years in industrialized society and ask "Just how did we get to this point, and how did we get what we have?". I recommend a listen to this fascinating "history of fire" on CBC Ideas:
Visions of Fire, Part 1 | CBC Radio I certainly couldn't imagine the notion of a "fire historian", and I'll bet you didn't either. Some VERY interesting ideas fro a guy who has spent years engaged in big-picture thinking about fire and fires.
At the same time, however, we have expanded as a species population, into a great many areas we never used to occupy, such that letting the forests do their thing and burn on their own terms can threaten us, simply because we aren't as physically removed from it as we might have been 300 years ago. Fort Mac would have been a teensy hick town in the absence of the oilsands, because it's out of the way. But when industry results in a massive influx of people, any forest fires can pose a serious threat, so we don't let the little ones come and go, simply so they don't transform into big ones.
There is also the matter of
where fires occur. Fires closer to the poles have a somewhat different impact than fires closer to the equator, largely because that's where the ozone layer is most compromised. Somewhat dumbed down, this site still provides responses to a number of related questions that connect fires, emissions, and a number of other things with the mechanisms of climate change.
How do Bonfires affect the ozone layer
