From what I remember there aren't many woods in the desert. There are Cactus, Jimson Weed, Mesquite and a few scrub oaks.
This is high desert. Plenty of pinon, juniper and other trees that really like to burn.
Yes and they are a tinderbox waiting to go up, apparently.
About 20 years ago I was working in Fallon, Nevada, installing a cellular system for Cellular One. One of our rituals when we turned up a site was to have a good burnin' of all the crates, boxes, etc. that the equipment came in.
One site in particular was on "Rattlesnake Hill" at the eastern edge of town, in the middle of scrubby bushes, creosote and others, and weeds. Typical desert and what I thought would not be of any particular danger of spreading a wildfire through. We got our fire going in the middle of a gravel parking lot and within 10 minutes the Fire Department, Sherriffs, and MP's (because of a Navy transmitter also located at the site) where there screaming bloody murder. It took some mighty smooth talking to not get thrown in jail that night.....