[Gunther38Capric]

In max you got the Fire option to use where you can choose between tendril and explosions .
Just make a simly sphere Gismo and hemisphere it .
Stretch the curve out.
the go to Envirement -Atmosphere and select the fire efffect option.

Pick the gismo then select Tendril
Tryout some flame settings and the detail of the flames
for animations ad a low Phase number s as you go.

Using particals slows down the rendering conciderably so this is a nice way around it

and if you need a nice lighting glow effect you can always insert a spotlight that is faced to the back or pointed towards the flames starting from the source.