add fuel to the fire/flames, to

add fuel to the fire/flames, to To exacerbate an already inflammatory situation, increasing anger or hostility. The Roman historian Livy used this turn of phrase (in Latin) nearly two thousand years ago, and it was repeated (in English) by numerous writers thereafter, among them John Milton (Sam- son Agonistes, 1671): “He’s gone, and who knows how he may report thy words by adding fuel to the flame.”