My earlier Native ‘Mericans realized that fire could release natural fertilisers.
It does a lot more than that. It clears thatch from native bunch grasses so that they express more rapidly the next spring. It releases hormones that stimulate giberellic acid production in seeds that breaks abscisic acid seed dormancy. It clears away competition for nitrogen fixing plants that provide the bulk of protein to herbivores. It consumes brush seedlings and maintains these early seral conditions.
And then some, but you get the idea.