Wahoo! I finally figured out how to do it!
1. open Render Globals
2. type in something for File Name Prefix
3. change By Frame to a number one more than the number of digits in your last frame. (e.i. - animation is 100 frames, there are 3 digits in the number "100", therefore, By Frame should be set to 4.)
4. change image format to Targa.
5. Close Render Globals.
6. Open PlayBlast. (PlayBlast will instantly begin to buffer the animation. Stop it from doing so by pressing Esc.)
7. Select File>Open Animation.
8. Find and Select the first frame in the animation.
9. Choose Open.

And wala! PlayBlast renders the scene with all my beautiful fire flickering about.

Thanks to Tom from the Alias|Wavefront forum.