As Dr. Hurst mentions, there are a lot of papers that discuss heat transfer as related to various stages of fire growth. If you're looking for introductory material rather than more advanced studies, you may want to consider the US Fire Administration's course book for their FIRE DYNAMICS course. I find that as a "text" it is quite helpful to someone learning this material from the start. This course is now provided online in many cases and the text may be available from the USFA. You'd need to write them to check. If you haven't taken this class yet, I would highly recommend it as a good starting point for understanding the various principles of fire dynamics.

Another good text that discusses the material in a fairly understandable way is Dr. Jim Quintiere's book on fire behavior.

Steve