I’m reasonably sure that you might find the title interesting, but it is inadequate. What fire really is, is humanity’s first invention, tool, weapon, survival & destruction method. Furthermore, it shaped modern humans in a process that ended in Homo sapiens.
Although fire predates humans (Hominids), there is clear evidence of which early human tamed it: Homo erectus (erect man). This ancestor of Homo sapiens (our species) emerged about 2 million years ago, and is generally considered to be the first “modern human.” Fire is much older. Remnants of fire storms have been dated to hundreds of million years ago. This is because fire did not need humans as an ignition source, it already had that: mainly lightning but also other sources.
In fact, early humans probably captured their first fires from lightning-ignited wildfires. They understood how valuable this tool was, thus protected and transported it, and eventually learned how to create fire without the help of lightning storms.
