Prior to the fire, the narrator hung his cat from a tree in his yard,
hung it with the tears streaming from [his] eyes, and with the bitterest remorse in his heart;—hung it because [he] knew that it had loved [him], and because [he] felt it had given [him] no reason of offence;—hung it because [he] knew that in doing so [he] was committing a sin—a deadly sin that would so jeopardize [his] immortal soul as to place it—if such a thing were possible—even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God.
He knows that he is committing a terrible sin, that one could hardly do anything worse (he even regrets it as he does it!), and that it damages his soul in the most hideous and revolting ways. On the very same night, he house catches fire, and he, his wife, and...
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his servant barely escape. His entire wealth is destroyed. In a sense, then, he gets a taste of Hell: it seems that he is punished greatly for his sin of viciously killing the poor cat. Fire can also be cleansing, though, as though it gives the narrator the opportunity to start afresh and do better. After all, he doesn't die; he gets a second chance at life. He does admit that he "regret[s] the loss of the animal," and he begins to "look about" for another such cat to replace the one he killed. However, he ruins this chance, too, growing more and more averse to the new cat he brings home and even beginning to dread it. He tries to kill the new cat, and when his wife prevents him, he kills her instead. The narrator gets a taste of Hell when he is punished by the fire, but rather than take the opportunity to better himself and avoid the real Hell, the narrator grows worse and murders his own wife.
The fire itself in "The Black Cat" is not immensely significant, but its effect is. On the very night that the narrator hangs his once-beloved cat Pluto, his house catches on fire. The entire house with the exception of one wall is destroyed. When the narrator approaches a crowd gathered around the remaining wall, he notices that a figure on the wall, almost as if an artist had created it, is drawing their attention. He states that it is
"the figure of a gigantic cat. The impression was given with an accuracy truly marvellous. There was a rope about the animal's neck."
The strange phenomenon is simply that one wall remains which bears a striking, supernaturally created image of a hanging cat. The narrator sees this incident as his dead cat pointing him out from the grave, and it causes him to slide further into his insanity.
As a side note, the fire adds to Poe's hell motif in this story. His first cat bears the name of the god of the underworld, and the fire creates a sense of certain damnation for the narrator's actions.