Doh!   Yes, I've encountered that issue with proximity to the emitter.  You might try one of these cheats:

• reduce the diffuse value for the candle/flame
• set diffuse value to zero, and use alternate diffuse instead
• set diffuse value to zero, and use a (low) ambient setting instead

     I have such a candle in the RDNA community gifts;  just re-scale it to make it more slender.

Poser 12, in feet.  

OSes:  Win7Prox64, Win7Ultx64

Silo Pro 2.5.6 64bit, Vue Infinite 2014.7, Genetica 4.0 Studio, UV Mapper Pro, UV Layout Pro, PhotoImpact X3, GIF Animator 5