To link the fire is to have sex with someone with an STD wether you have it or they have it or both.
Damn my girlfriend wanted us to link the fire and I was like no way I don't want Gonorrhea.
Someone who has a fetish and genuinely is obsessed with it and allows it to consume them to the point that it tortures them.
Matthew is a sad tortured fetishist. It was a shame how it ate away at his soul.