From the scattered bits of information in the Bible the following facts can be gleaned about the place known as Sheol/Hades:
1 It is a place Eccl 9:10 [NWT] It therefore is a spatial unit located somewhere, in a dimension hiterto unknown to us [Most of us look down when making reference to it]
2 It has gates Isa 38:10 These are naturally as literal as Sheol itself, but are not physical. Hence the allusion to Christ as the One having the "keys" of Sheol
3 It is a place of darkness and gloom Job 10:21, 22; Ps 143:3 Evidently light which is a physical reality does not penetrate there
4 Nevertheless it is in some way also a place where the denizens can converse and hassle one another, even recognizing newcomers.They are able to make moral judgments on each other. Isa 14:9-20; 44:23; Ez 32:21;
5 Hence it is a place of concious existence but lacking in "spiritual" values Ps 6:5
6 There are evidently at least three levels in Sheol since we know of it having a "lowest part" Dt 32:22
7 The inhabitants are disembodied spirits called, in the Heb "Rephaim" Jewish Tanach: "Shades" Prot NKJV "the dead" Cath JB "ghosts" Isa 14:9
8 Somehow these disembodied spirits are capable of experiencing such senses as "pain" Job 26:5: and "torment" Lu 16:23 The Heb word used in Job, "chool" evidently means the physical pain experienced in childbirth. However the source of this pain, whether internal or externally generated is not described
9 While the Bible does make reference to those in Sheol/Hades as experiencing "humiliation" and "contempt"- Dan 12:2 - the reference is to a period future to their existence in Sheol/Hades
In none of these passages is any reference made to "fires" as a source of the sensient experiences felt by the dead
However fire is associated with a seperate and eternal existing location which is still in the future. The palce termed Gehenna in the NT. Evidently at the end of the Millennium, Sheol/Hades will be emptied of its non physical inhabitants who, as a result of adverse judgment, will then be clothed with physical bodies and if qualified to be associates of satan and his angelic hordes, be thrown into these literal and physical fires
Cheers