Yes eventually I want what you described, the animation could be played right now at the beginning, but the crater creation can't be done until v0.3.
As for the fire spreading, potential issues with killing something on initial destruction, it's going to be challenging to balance gameplay and squeeze as much fun from it as possible, but we'll figure it out. You guys will be like "I want this torch to burn the whole forest", and I'll be like "no, no you can burn one tree", and then we settle on a couple of tiles. ;)