I’ve heard what a giant dead tree will do when it comes down during a fire. Due to the energy of the fall, the embers shoot out in all directions for very long distances.
Cleaning out the dead wood, indeed, would make these fires far less devastating.
There are areas in the Colorado front range where 90+% of trees are dead from beetle kill. The envirowhackos will not allow logging out of the dead wood. There will be many devastating fires in the years to come. Interestingly the black forest fire was in healthy trees, though it is very dry in Colorado over the past few years.