Willow is an interesting character, because she is not good at starting fires, yet people think she is. She gets a lighter, but torches are easy to craft. Anyone can grab a torch and ignite something. She's not better at it than anyone else. Her fires aren't bigger, don't spread faster, or anything. Given the choice between Willow with her lighter, and Wickerbottom reading The End is Nigh, I can tell you who's gonna burn your base down, and she doesn't have pigtails. Heck, with Wolfgang's mighty speed buff, he can light fires faster than Willow, as can an overcharged WX-78 (after Wickerbottom read The End is Nigh).
What's interesting is that Willow is good at stopping fires. She has 3 seconds of fire damage immunity, half fire damage, and she's entirely immune to the burning from putting out smouldering objects. She can run into a burning base, collect everything that's catching on fire, and save more than any other character. She'll get sanity from doing so, and won't lose nearly as much health. All she has to do is momentarily dart out of the flames, and she's got 3 more seconds of fire suppression. She might even be able to go into smouldering chests, to grab ice, where other characters would burn to death trying to extinguish the chest to access it.
So it's really bizarre that she's "the character who burns down your base." Is it because she starts with a lighter, and griefers are just so stupid they can't even craft a torch? No, I think it's entirely our assumptions about her. Purely from her dialog, and her delight at being near fire and burning things, it leads us to assume she's the best for starting fires, and always use her to do so. It's actually really good, because people who only care about hurting others (not the game) will make the mistake of picking her, then be less effective, and more vulnerable to being outclassed by the better characters. People who hide their fear of caring about anything behind self-deprecatory humor, they pick Willow, and their days are numbered. If they picked Wigfrid they could linger longer, and make life harder for more people.
Y'know unless someone actually points it out, then everyone would know Willow's not who they should use to grief, but hey, who'd be stupid enough to do that?
So that makes Willow the best firefighter, for literal flames, and for containing destructive sprees by malicious players.
