The paper is here
This particular set of fires was associated with an incredibly intense propaganda campaign intended to convince people that it was all due to an outbreak of arson. In reality, there’s a pretty steady drip of human ignitions, including arson, and what changed is that it got hotter and drier, causing what would be otherwise unremarkable modest fires to spread rapidly into huge wildfires.
The propaganda around the fires cut that quite significantly for a while.