but choose to repress the difficult thought and refuse the reality of the situation.

I think that the answer you are looking for comes at almost the very end of the chapter.  I think that your answer should be that the littleuns see snakes in the fire.

The kids as a group see lots of things in the fire.  Or at least, the fire is described in many ways.  It is described as a squirrel climbing a tree.  It is described as a jaguar creeping along.

But the one time that the littleuns describe what they see, they say that they see snakes.  This happens just before they realize that the littlun with the birthmark is missing.

The fire from Lord of the Fliesis significant because it symbolizes both hope and destruction.  

When the novel first begins, Ralph is adamant that a signal fire is kept lit.  His hope rests on the belief that the fire will be able to attract the attention of a passing ship.  

“There’s another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire. . . We’ve got to have special people for looking after the fire. Any day there may be a ship out there“ –- he waved his arm at the taut wire of the horizon -– “and if we have a signal going they’ll come and take us off.”

Unfortunately that initial fire wound up being more destructive than anything else.  By then end of chapter two, the fire had burned completely out of control, didn't signal any rescue whatsoever, and killed one of the boys.  

While fire may have gone from a symbol of hope to a symbol of destruction in the beginning of the book, fire does the opposite at the novel's conclusion.  Jack has gone ballistic by the end of the book, and he wants to hunt and kill Ralph.  Part of Jack's plan is to use fire to smoke Ralph out into the open.  To Jack's credit, that part of the plan is successful; however, the fire and smoke are also seen by a passing ship.  Rescue arrives just in time to save Ralph's life.  Fire has once again been turned into a symbol of hope and rescue.

The fire reached the coconut palms by the beach and swallowed them noisily. A flame, seemingly detached, swung like an acrobat and licked up the palm heads on the platform. The sky was black.

The officer grinned cheerfully at Ralph.

“We saw your smoke." 

At the second meeting, after Ralph, Simon, and Jack have explored the island, Ralph talks about rescue and suggests that the boys can help themselves be found by making a signal fire. As soon as he says the word "fire," the boys start shouting, "A fire! Make a fire!" Half the boys rise up, and Jack leads them and everyone else into the wooded part of the island. Ralph follows and points out a place that seems to be a great source of firewood. It was a "patch [that] might have been designed expressly for fuel." The boys work together to build a pile, and they make a huge stack topped off with dried leaves. Then, using Piggy's glasses, they set it alight.

Because the fuel they have chosen is so rotten, the stack burns wildly, and the boys keep adding wood to feed it. However, it seems to go out quickly as soon as they stop adding branches. While a discussion ensues about how to build a more effective fire, the flames have been creeping unobserved toward the patch of dry forest. Piggy is the first one to notice it. Soon, "beneath the dark canopy of leaves and smoke the fire laid hold on the forest and began to gnaw." The flames encompass acres of the island: "a quarter of a mile square of forest was savage with smoke and flame."

Piggy pronounces with irony: "You got your small fire all right." Soon all the boys are laughing at the thought that they had so recently been bemoaning the lack of smoke from the fire. Piggy lectures them, and then comes to the horrifying realization that the littlun with the mulberry birthmark is not among them--that he certainly perished in the flames.

In chapter 2, Ralph holds an assembly in which he addresses the top priorities that must be completed in order to be rescued from the uninhabited island. Ralph mentions that the boys must build a signal fire so that passing ships will be able to spot them from a distance. He also suggests that the signal fire should be built on top of the mountain to make it more visible to passing ships. All the boys agree that making a signal fire is top priority and race to collect dead wood from the nearby forest. However, once the boys have a massive collection of firewood, they have no way of starting the fire. Fortunately, Jack notices Piggy's glasses and realizes the boys can use the lenses to focus a ray from the sun, which will heat the dry wood and eventually create a spark. Ralph then takes Piggy's glasses, focuses a sun ray onto the wood, and lights the fire. Unfortunately, the pile is too large, and a massive flame is lifted into the air as the wind carries sparks to the surrounding forest. The boys accidentally start a forest fire, and a littlun disappears in the burning woods. 

The two main characters, Ralph and Jack, argue over the various uses of fire throughout the novel. Golding uses fire as a symbol to represent different features which correlate with Ralph and Jack's separate uses of the element. Ralph believes the fire should be used to signal ships as they are passing the island.When used as a signal, fire symbolizes rescue and civilization. Ralph argues with Jack about the importance of maintaining the signal fire at all times. The signal fire is initially located at the top of the mountain where it would be most visible to passing ships and airplanes. However, Jack convinces Samneric to leave their post, and the signal fire goes out. Eventually, there are not enough boys to maintain the signal fire, and Jack invades Ralph's camp to steal burning logs to start a fire of his own. Jack uses the fire for an entirely different purpose. Jack uses the fire to cook the pigs he hunts, and to smoke out Ralph at the end of the novel.Under Jack's supervision, fire symbolizes destruction. When Jack sets the brush on fire to make Ralph come out of hiding, the entire island goes up in flames.

Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is set on a tropical island and its main characters are a group of schoolboys aged five or six to thirteen or so. Fire is a changeable symbol which Golding uses to represent both life and death throughout the novel. 

In chapter two of the novel, the boys do something together for the first time: they run up the mountain to light a signal fire, as Ralph suggests. In their enthusiasm to light a signal fire, however, they create a conflagration that nearly kills them all and does kill a little boy with a mulberry birthmark. 

Beneath the dark canopy of leaves and smoke the fire laid hold on the forest and began to gnaw. Acres of black and yellow smoke rolled steadily toward the sea. At the sight of the flames and the irresistible course of the fire, the boys broke into shrill, excited cheering. The flames, as though they were a kind of wild life, crept as a jaguar creeps on its belly toward a line of birch-like saplings that fledged an outcrop of the pink rock. They flapped at the first of the trees, and the branches grew a brief foliage of fire. The heart of flame leapt nimbly across the gap between the trees and then went swinging and flaring along the whole row of them. Beneath the capering boys a quarter of a mile square of forest was savage with smoke and flame. The separate noises of the fire merged into a drum-roll that seemed to shake the
mountain.

What was supposed to have been the source of their rescue (life) quickly became an agent of death.

In the middle fo the novel, fire comes to represent survival (life). The only way the boys know to start a fire is with Piggy's glasses, and for most of the story he is willing to let them be used by whoever needs to start a fire. While the boys are able to live on fruit and a few other things, what they really need is meat; in order to cook the meat which the hunters eventually provide, they also need fire. The fight for Piggy's glasses also becomes a fight for survival. In the end, whoever has the glasses has the power of life and death on the island.

In the last chapter of the novel, the fire which was to have flushed Ralph out of hiding so he could be killed also creates enough smoke for a passing military vessel to rescue the boys. This dual symbolism is the final irony in this novel, a reversal of that found in chapter two. There, the fire designed to rescue them all inadvertently killed someone; here, the fire designed to kill someone inadvertently rescued them all. Fire is a changing symbol of both life and death throughout this novel. 

As the boys' first day on the island draws to a close, Ralph holds a second meeting to report on the findings of the boys who went exploring. He then suggests that they can help themselves get rescued by making a signal fire. The boys go wild, and everyone works together to make a huge mound of sticks and branches for the fire. However, when it comes time to light it, Ralph sheepishly realizes he has no way to do so. He asks if anyone has a match, and some boys discuss the process of rubbing two sticks together to make sparks, but no one is quite sure how to do that.

Piggy has been the only boy not involved in the boisterous wood gathering. As he comes huffing up to the place where the other boys are, Ralph asks him if he has matches. Jack suddenly points at him, saying, "His specs--use them as burning glasses!" The boys surround Piggy, and Jack snatches the glasses off his face. Ralph uses the lenses to focus light on a rotten piece of wood. It begins to smoke, and a flame appears. The dry fuel burns quickly, and soon the flame reaches 20 feet into the air. 

The role of fire with respect to Ralph's tribe, is associated with positive benefits, warmth, rescue signals, and cooking, yet in Ralph's it is used for more destructive purposes-he uses fire as an agent to flush his foes out into the open to slaughter.

The destructive descent of the use of fire begins with the death of the small boy, the boys were careless and inattentive to the power and force of fire, and failed to respect the power.

Finally, the fire ends with a positive fire, the destructive fire that destroys the island brings rescue, thus ending the savagery on the island.

I think there are a number of ways you can look at the fire as a symbol.  One of them is mentioned in the previous post, the idea that Ralph was always pushing the fire as super important, as their way to be rescued.  Of course their rescuers are part of the same world that is consumed with violence and destruction, so it is ironic that Ralph's fire eventually consumes everything on the island but also brings the return of "civilization" in the form of the officer and the other men from the navy.  This is particularly brought into focus by the officer's remark about the fact that they are "all British boys" and that they would have been able to hold things together, as though they were civilized and not going to end up like these savages that he sees.

Interestingly, William Golding's narrative is framed in fire. In the exposition, the plane which carries the boys creates a scar in the land as it crashes upon the island; and after meeting Ralph, Piggy informs him that he has looked out the window and seen flames coming out of one part of this plane. In the denouement, the entire island is virtually engulfed in flames as the hunters set fire to everything in their frenzy to kill Ralph. This framing encloses the island in turmoil; for, there are often boulders rolling down the mountain, trees exploding from the heat of the rescue fire--sounds not unlike the roar of war, the drums rolling, marching, bombs exploding, and cannon's booming.

Within this environment of bellicose noises, the fire represents other things, but it ultimately returns to destruction:

• Rescue and Responsibility - The fire represents the burden of responsibility for Ralph as the leader.  He must ensure that the rescue fire keeps burning and creates smoke and is contained in the proper area.  At first, the boys allow too much to burn and do not put enough green upon it for there to be the necessary smoke. Then, they allow it to get out of control and burn some of the island.
• Power - Once Jack and the hunters steal the fire they are empowered, splitting the boys as hunters or those who follow Ralph and survive on fruit. As in the story of Prometheus, who steals fire from the gods and gives it to man, Jack's stealing of the fire gives him power.
• Destruction - When Jack lights a fire in order to flush Ralph out of the brush in which he hides in Chapter Twelve, Ralph hears noises that are "familiar,"not unlike the sounds that Ralph "has heard before": "deep grumbling noises," "somber noises," trees falling with the "grumble of the forest."  Ironically, this destructive fire meant to kill Ralph is what rescues him. However, it is not a true rescue from evil and destruction since Ralph and the other boys are headed to a Navy warship and the boys will yet experience the horrors and destruction of war, a state which is part of the natural savagery of man. So with his rescue, Ralph "wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart" as he finds with the rescuer, the Navy officer, a continuation of destruction represented by the warship.

Fire symbolizes the possibility of rescue, civilization, and also the destructive force of nature throughout the novel. Initially, Ralph suggests that the boys create a signal fire, which will emit smoke that passing ships can spot. He tells the boys,

"We’ve got to have special people for looking after the fire. Any day there may be a ship out there . . . and if we have a signal going they’ll come and take us off." (Golding, 58)

The possibility of rescue also correlates with the symbolism of civilization, in that the boys will return safely to their homes in England. In order to create and maintain the signal fire, the boys must work together. The concepts of collaboration and organization concerning the maintenance of the signal fire are related to the fire's symbolic interpretation.

Unfortunately, the boys gradually descend into savagery and begin to neglect the signal fire. After Jack entices Samneric to leave their duty on top of the mountain, the signal fire extinguishes. Once the signal fire initially goes out, the boys fail to keep a constant fire on top of the mountain, which signifies their distance from civilization. Toward the end of the novel, Ralph laments their inability to maintain a signal fire, which negatively affected the possibility of being rescued. Ralph tells Piggy,

"Just an ordinary fire. You’d think we could do that, wouldn’t you? Just a smoke signal so we can be rescued. Are we savages or what?" (244)

In addition to symbolically representing the possibility of rescue and civilization, the signal fire can also be interpreted as a destructive force. When the boys initially build a fire, it rapidly grows out of control and destroys much of the surrounding forest. Golding writes,

"Beneath the dark canopy of leaves and smoke the fire laid hold on the forest and began to gnaw. Acres of black and yellow smoke rolled steadily toward the sea." (34)

Unfortunately, one of the littluns loses his life during the forest fire. In this way, the signal fire also represents the unpredictability of nature and its destructive force. In order to harness the power of fire, the boys must collaborate, exercise responsibility, and perform maintenance. By the end of the novel, the boys do not maintain a signal fire, which represents their descent into savagery and emphasizes their distance from civilization.

Twice in the story Jack finds himself having no means of starting a fire. The first occurs in chapter 2 when the boys have made a huge pile of firewood in response to Ralph's suggestion that they build a signal fire. When Ralph asks him to light the fire, Jack blushes and says, "You rub two sticks. You rub--" He is obviously trying to recall the survivalist technique most boys hear about at some point but few ever perform. But when Piggy arrives, Jack gets a different idea: "His specs--use them as burning glasses." Instead of asking Piggy for the use of his lenses, Jack snatches them off Piggy's face. Ralph then uses them to light the fire.

Later, in chapter 8, after Jack has created his own tribe and they have killed the sow, Roger asks him how they will make a fire to cook it. Jack responds, "We'll raid them and take fire." 

Interestingly, in both situations Jack resorts to taking without asking when, if he had asked, he would certainly have been given what he requested. These incidents show Jack's tendency to resort to violence rather than use the conventions of society to acquire what he needs.

For nought so good but strain'e from that fair use/Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse:/Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;/...In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will;/And where the worser is predominant/Full soon the canker death eats up that plant. [Romeo and Juliet, II,III, 19-30]

Shakespeare's Friar Laurence answers this question:  The wildfire exemplifies virtue having turned to vice.  It is symbolic of the civilized human nature--a life-saving signal--gone awry. The wildfire destroys the vegetation and life on the island; civilization has "stumbled on abuse." 

While the boys are civilized and rational and under control, the fire is tended on a regular schedule.  However, when the boys ignore it, the fire, "misapplied," gets out of control. Later, after the boys  paint their faces and, hide behind their masks. They act out their savagery and hunt pigs and the fire is untended; thus, it becomes a wildfire and the "canker death eats up that plant":  Death and killing take dominance over civilized behavior--"kill the beast! kill the beast!" the boys chant.  They become obsessed with destruction, and their obession with killing Ralph allows the wildfire to begin its "canker death" of the island.  The wildfires symbolize the virtue of civilization turned to the vice of savagery in the boys of "Lord of the Flies."

One of the ways that fire has a great impact is in governing so much of what happens in the plot of the story. Once they light a big fire atop the mountain they are excited by the prospect and get carried away. Their carelessness leads to the death of the boy with the birthmark.

Ralph sees this signal fire as being vital and wants them to maintain it at all times. When a ship goes past and Jack's hunters have let the fire die in order to go kill a pig, he is irate and the gulf between him and Jack begins to widen. Later on the fire becomes a point of conflict as the hunters need Piggy's specs in order to light a fire so they raid the camp on the beach to get them.

The last big fire is lit by the boys as an attempt to flush Ralph out so they can kill him. he smoke of the conflagration is what brings the naval officer to the island to rescue them.

Well, Ralph and Piggy reiterate the main reason for the fire's importance throughout the novel. Here's Ralph speaking in Chapter 2 about the importance of keeping a signal fire going:

“There’s another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire.”

“We’ve got to have special people for looking after the fire. Any day there may be a ship out there“–he waved his arm at the taut wire of the horizon–“and if we have a signal going they’ll come and take us off.

In fact, later in the novel, Ralph even goes so far as to say

The fire is the most important thing on the island.

The fire plays a secondary role: it provides hot food, and it allows Jack to cook the pig meat he provides. Of course, part of the importance of the fire to the novel is about the tension between the two roles: its role with Jack as a food-cooker and an atmosphere-builder (as well as, later as a violent threat) - and its role with Ralph as a signal.

As the novel continues, the boys shift from Ralph to Jack, and from signal fires towards pig hunts. Ralph has to try and restate his case:

“Look at us! How many are we? And yet we can’t keep a fire going to make smoke. Don’t you understand? Can’t you see we ought to—ought to die before we let the fire out?”

The first sign that the boys aren't going to control the island is when they create a big fire they cannot control. One of the earliest tension points between Jack and Ralph is when Jack lets the signal fire go out. And, at the end, the fire - and this is its other key purpose, as a symbol - swallows the whole island. What does the fire symbolise? Hell, the devil, the darkness of man. The fire, in the end, turns the paradisical island into a figurative burning hell.

Fire, in this novel and many others, is symbolic of life.  Without it, you don't survive, and in LOF they will never be rescued if they don't keep the signal fire burning.  Ironically, it is the entire island on fire (set to "smoke" Ralph out of hiding so Jack's tribe can hunt him down) that rescues Ralph and the others.

Fire brings many comforts--cooked meat, warmth at night, and protection from the beast.  Piggy's glasses are the catalyst to the fire. Whoever has them (symbolic of Piggy's wisdom and ability to "see" clearly what needs to be done), has control of fire, and ultimately power over the other boys.

Fire is a powerful symbol in Lord of the Flies, representing both the destructive force of nature as well as the boys' connection to civilization.  The first instance of fire in the novel occurs when the boys build their first signal fire on the mountain.  The overly jubilant efforts of the boys lead them to build an enormous fire that gets out of control and burns up the dry side of the mountain.  At the end of chapter two as the fire rages out of control, Piggy realizes that one of the littluns is unnaccounted for, and the reader can only assume that the young boy perishes in the blaze.  Later, the signal fire becomes a lifeline for Ralph in his attempts to be rescued.  He views keeping the signal fire lit as the utmost important priority on the island; Ralph wants a smoke signal so the boys can be rescued. 

By the end of the novel, Jack uses fire to flush out Ralph from the dense thicket in the jungle.  Jack's fire rages out of control, and ironically, the smoke from Jack's fire signals the cruiser that ends up rescuing the boys. 

The first reason the boys build a fire is to serve as a signal for passing ships to see that there are boys on the uninhabited island that need to be rescued. The boys decide to build the signal fire on the top of the mountain and Ralph puts Jack and his hunters in charge of maintaining the signal fire throughout the day and night. However, Jack excuses Samneric from their duties watching the signal fire and the boys miss out on an opportunity to be rescued when a ship passes the island.

The second reason the boys use fire is to cook the pig meat. After Jack and his hunters kill their first pig, they build a fire to roast the pig meat. When Jack establishes his own tribe of savages on the opposite end of the island, Ralph and Piggy start their own fire to keep them warm and calm the littluns during the night. Jack also uses fire in an attempt to smoke Ralph out of the forest toward the end of the novel. When Jack and his band of savages hunt Ralph, they set the forest on fire, which forces Ralph to run onto the beach to escape the burning forest.

When the boys first light the fire, it is intended as a signal. Ralph, representing the more rational and rule-bound faction of the boys, sets up shifts and tries to organize the boys so that there will be a fire all the time so that any passing plane or ship will be able to see them and they can be rescued.

But the boys struggle to maintain this, in some ways suggesting perhaps their struggle to maintain the trappings of civilization. This is emphasized when they see a plane only to then find out that the fire has gone out.

As the story progresses, the use of fire changes to be something the boys basically fight over, the power to light the fire resting in Piggy's "specs." This too may symbolize a shift in power once the hunters take the specs and the power of fire.

Lastly, the great fire that burns much of the island as the hunters pursue Jack also leads to their rescue, a twist that is perhaps ironic given that in this moment the last elements of civilization are stripped away and the boys are hunting one of their own; only then does fire brings a return of adults and the rules and civilization they represent.