That's part of it but there is more to the story ...

-- a big change in logging activities, where previous practice was using brush piles (from delimbing trees) that were burned in winter was stopped (to save money), and instead a "where it drops, it stays" practice began, leaving massive amounts of dry fuel for fires to feed on (right around 2000-02 it changed)

-- a failure of gov't regulation to match tree planting numbers to equal the number of trees harvested

-- global warming that raised winter temperatures, which allowed pests to survive in larger numbers than ever before and decimated wide swaths of pine/spruce (BC is a prime example)