For nought so good but strain'e from that fair use/Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse:/Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;/...In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will;/And where the worser is predominant/Full soon the canker death eats up that plant. [Romeo and Juliet, II,III, 19-30]
Shakespeare's Friar Laurence answers this question: The wildfire exemplifies virtue having turned to vice. It is symbolic of the civilized human nature--a life-saving signal--gone awry. The wildfire destroys the vegetation and life on the island; civilization has "stumbled on abuse."
While the boys are civilized and rational and under control, the fire is tended on a regular schedule. However, when the boys ignore it, the fire, "misapplied," gets out of control. Later, after the boys paint their faces and, hide behind their masks. They act out their savagery and hunt pigs and the fire is untended; thus, it becomes a wildfire and the "canker death eats up that plant": Death and killing take dominance over civilized behavior--"kill the beast! kill the beast!" the boys chant. They become obsessed with destruction, and their obession with killing Ralph allows the wildfire to begin its "canker death" of the island. The wildfires symbolize the virtue of civilization turned to the vice of savagery in the boys of "Lord of the Flies."
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