defense against Fires from Afar?

You can also have other targets be availiable. Having a mass of scouts in the same province, unhidden, will give them a higher chance of not being the one to die from it. While this isn't particularly useful in provinces where you have large numbers of wizards doing something (researching for example) it can be very useful when moving attacking armies and you want to keep your mages free of Seeking Arrows/Flames/Murdering Winters death.