The intended result of our fire tutorial. Of course, first things first. Open a new image and fill with black. Create and position your white text. Make sure to leave ample room at the image top for the flames.

Duplicate the text layer (Layer > Duplicate). Create a new layer and fill with black. Now arrange the new layer so it is in-between the original text layer and the copied text layer, as shown. Select the copied text layer and press Cntrl + E to merge the layers.

Edit > Rotate Canvas 90 degrees counterclockwise. Under Filter, utilize Filter > Stylize > Wind using the default settings three times.

Rotate the image back 90 degrees clockwise.

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with a 2.0 setting. This setting will create better flames at the end of this tutorial. Which, of course, is what we all want.

Now to add some color: Image > Adjustments > Hue and Saturation with the settings: Hue at 40, Saturation at 100, Lightness at 0.

Duplicate Layer 1. Add some color to the duplicated layer: Image > Adjustments > Hue and Saturation with the settings: Hue at 0, Saturation at 100, Lightness at 0. Change the blending mode of this layer to Color Dodge.

With the duplicated layer (layer one) still active, press Cntrl + E to merge the layers.. Move the original text layer to the top of the layer pallet.

The result of changing the blending mode and merging the layers. With a few more steps, the flames will look much more realistic.

Highlight the text layer and change the text color to black, which will make the text stand out much better against the flames backdrop.

Add the following style to the text layer: Inner Glow > Blend Mode > Screen, Color > #FF7632, Size > 9. The text seems to heat up before your eyes.

Filter > Liquify is next. Here is where you "bend and twist" the flames to your liking. We used a brush size of 40 and a brush pressure of 35. Reconstruction Mode was set to Amplitwist.

The same Liquify settings used on the interior of the text to pull the smaller flames up and outwards a bit. Experimenting can produce some interesting and imaginative results.