Fire use predates fire making. Historically, hominids would feed a fire to keep it going but not know how to make one from scratch. Fire use started in areas with active volcanic activity and lava flows so getting a fire wasn't that hard if you lost one.

It's first primitive use was to scorch bushland. You could forage for roasted fruit, nuts, and rodents after.

Homo Sapiens while being around for 300,000 years were still evolving long after their emergence. The largest set of activity was in the brain. The most you could go back and not be able to tell cognitively between modern humans is probably 100,000 years. That's when advanced cultures started to emerge (not civilization, just cultures).