Indeed it should be cool to made layers and a stage like tthis, but the problem is much "good" screenshots of this stage. (only one for be exact) I can't made layers with only one picture to work with =(
And about the flames, I made the animations sprites myself, yes it could be better. And about their positions, I jsut respected the original positions of them on the original picture : http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120112141831/soulcalibur/images/9/9d/050.jpg and as you can see it well with the left one, the flames are not exactly in the middle of their "small pillars"