Managing particle systems depending on scene whilst remembering state

Hi, guys! Hoping I could get some help on an issue I've been struggling on for some time.

I have two rooms. A kitchen and a hallway; two separate scenes. I also have particle systems in each room in the form of fires and smoke. And to manage these fires, I have a FireManager. Now, the GameManager cues the FireManager for when the fire should start. The FireManager has already instantiated the fires in Awake(), and then it just .SetActive(true) on the two fires, when the GameManager calls for them to start.

Let's say I stand in the kitchen when the fire starts. I see the fire develop a bit, and then enter the hallway where the fire hasn't started yet. And then I enter the kitchen again. Now, the flames should have grown a little in the time I've been in the kitchen. And there should also be more smoke in the kitchen.

And this is where the problem/trade-off lies.

1) If I disable fires depending on which room I am in, i.e. disabling kitchen fire when entering hallway, and then re-enable kitchen fire when re-entering, the kitchen fire starts at the beginning again.

2) If I keep both fires enabled throughout, the particle system from one room will enter the other room, i.e. the flames from the kitchen comes through the wall and into the hallway.

So, basically my question is how would I go about managing these fires so that either

1) the states of the fires are managed whilst using .SetActive (or any other method for that matter)

2) Keep the flames contained within their respective room/scene.

Note : It is probably worth mentioning that these fires contain several fire particle systems within themselves. At root there is an empty gameobject, which contains gameobject containers for different types of fires. i.e. an empy gameobject within the fire hierarchy called "Small Fires" which have script components for scaling and moving the fire, and underneath that object, the actual fires reside. If that makes any sense. Not sure if that is relevant for the question though.

Note 2 : I've looked at the Simulate - function, but I haven't been able to implement it successfully. Because how would the FireManager be able to tell the fires to simulate? I can't make the FireManager call internal functions on the fires, so I don't know FireManager would be able to tell the fire "Hey, someone entered the room. Start simulating the fire as 10 seconds has elapsed".

Note 3 : This is to run on android and iOS mobile phones with the use of VR, so performance is a key issue here.

I'm reeeally hoping for more than a once-sentenced answer, but I'll take anything I get at this time :)