Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 22:6

"If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the shocks of grain, or the standing grain, or the field are consumed; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution." — Exodus 22:6 (ASV)

If fire break out, and catch in thorns. —In the East, as elsewhere— e.g., Italy (Virgil, Georgics, 1.84) and England—it is customary at certain seasons to burn the weeds and other refuse of a farm, which is collected for the purpose into heaps, and then set on fire. Such fires may spread, especially in the dry East, if care is not taken, and cause extensive damage to the crops, or even the corn-heaps of a neighbour. The loss in such cases was to fall on the man who lit the fire.