I don’t think any part of my comment implied this was happening naturally, but just to clarify: it is a cycle very much driven by human activity. My intent in explaining the cycle wasn’t to say “this is happening anyway without humans starting fires” but to say “not only do fires started burn down trees today but they also make future fires worse”.

Which is why I say it’s a key contributor to the increase in fires, and disagree with it just being a long term consequence, as you say. Because of this cycle, there will be incidences of slash and burn land management that progress to major forest fire that would not have done previously.