Are the giant burn scars on sequoias in California a result of prescribed burning on the forest floor?

The burn marks are probably from forest fires that occurred before proscribed burning became a standard forest management procedure. Decades of dead needle, leaves, cone, bark, dead twigs and limbs were allowed to build up, so a lightening strike could easily start a fire in all that dry tinder, not to mention cigarettes tossed out of car windows without being completely extinguished before being tossed.