Given the massive size of wildfires that are on the news every summer, I'm curious to know what sort of response Native American tribes had to large fires? Did they have some sort of organized fire response? Obviously they didn't have the kind of modern firefighting equipment we have now, but did they make attempts to fight large fires or did they just flee the area?
Alan Taylor suggests in American Colonies that the Natives American communities indulged in regular bush burning activities which meant the forest floor remained cleared of dead and dying debris. The additional side effect of which is that its difficult for massive fires to proliferate because in fact the forests were being "managed" by the native Americans.
He's basically suggesting that it was less likely that these massive fires would occur.