The fox-on-fire tale has an even longer history, going back at least to an incident when Samson wanted to wind up the Philistines:

Judges 15

4 And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.

5 And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.