It could be much worse. imagine if the military knew that major forest fires would be a serious threat to infrastructure, and that it'd be best if some fires were stated now so as to mitigate future mega-fires. you couldn't exactly push that through to a vote, of course. So perhaps some of these fires are controlled, just as the west coast santa rosa "laser fire" of last October.

Hard to say. Some quake followers think that the fires might be starting as a function of rising magma, surface puncturing lava even in some places.