Greg,
In the charter era in South Africa fires were a problem because vegetation had grown up. During steam days, repeated small fires kept the vegetation under control. On at least one charter we went back through an area we had passed through an hour before and there were several hundred smoking acres. The farmers would all file claims with the government. One year there was a steam ban put into place but the famers were so used to the claims money that the went ahead and filed claims anyway!
On our last charter back in 2007 the organizer hired a Unimog with a large water tank to follow the train. When there weren't any dirt roads paralleling the tracks, it just went cross country. No fires were set but a steam ban went into effect the day after the charter ended. This caused the Port Elizabeth steam group a lot of trouble since they were unable to run their engines back home under steam.
Michael Allen