Island in flames

A logical puzzle:

 A man is stranded on a jungle-covered island. 

One day the wind is blowing from the west, the sun rays are plaguing the west side of the island and set fire to the forest. The fire is violent, burns everything in its path, and if no measures are taken it will burn to the ground the whole island, killing the man as well.

The island is surrounded by steep cliffs, the man can´t jump into the sea.

How can the man survive the fire? (And there are no water containers or other means to extinguish the fire)

(see answear below)

The answear: 

The man takes a piece of wood and lights it up with fire at the west side of the island. Then, very fast, he brings his burning torch to the east side and starts another fire. The wind will cause the original fire to proceed towards the east side of the island, but the fire will stop at the area that was burnt out by the second fire.

Thus the man survives the fire, but he will die of hunger, as all the food has been destroyed...

I myself was thinking hard for about 10 minutes trying to solve the puzzle, but didn´t come up with the solution. That´s because my brain is so stupid. But, were I to face the situation in real life, wouldn´t my legs solve the puzzle somehow by themselves, quite automatically? Anyway, my stomach would be rumbling all the time, wishing me to burnt to death right away.