Natives maintained areas around their settlements and in other desirable areas by routinely using prescribed burns. Early photographs of settlements on the Klamath River, in Yurok country, show bare ground for a sizable distance around houses. From an earlier post of mine:

There is abundant information about Northwest Native Americans using fire as a management tool to maintain productive environments, but none (that I know of) about NW Native Americans response to wildfire. The use of fire to encourage prairie habitat on the Olympic Peninsula is documented by M. Kat Anderson here. Zuckerberg notes the use of fire by natives in maintaining prairies/oak woodlands in the Puget Sound lowlands. William Fraser Tolmie, physician, furtrader and Chief factor at Fort Nisqually from 1833 to 1859 wrote of fires and smoke from Indian burning in Puget Sound prairies occurring very frequently. In Oregon the use of fire to maintain the Willamette prairies and along the Rogue and Umpqua Rivers of Oregon is provided by Robert Boyd here. Native burning in northern coastal California is documented by Kroeber and others. Burning that was done throughout the Northwest encouraged desirable plant and animal species but also protected villages from wildfire. According to Zuckerberg, on occasion, these fires very likely caused wildfires. Naturally occurring wildfires that happened in the prehistoric period were caused by lightning. There were undoubtedly very large fires prehistorically.

For the most part fire was desireable. It stimulated growth of desireable species and reduced cover and fuels. Natives had been living with fire for over 15 thousand years prior to contact. they were pretty adept at fuels management.

Zuckerberg, Arthur 1991 The Natural History of Puget Sound Country, University of Washington Press.

Kroeber, Alfred 1970 Handbook of California Indians, University of California Press. (original 1926).

Tolmie, William Fraser (1963). The Journals of William Fraser Tolmie: Physician and Fur Trader. Mitchell Press.