Origin
The use of this proverb was first made by the poet and dramatist Michael Drayton in 1596.
Explanation
If you add fuel to the fire, you do something to make a bad situation even worse. It means to make a problem worse; to say or do something that makes a bad situation worse; to make an angry person get even angrier. It is metaphorical, from the fact that adding a fuel, like petrol or wood, to a fire will make it burn brighter and hotter. If you pour water on a fire, it goes out. But if you put fuel (like coal or wood) on a fire, you make it burn hotter and brighter. If “fire” represents any kind of trouble, then anything you do to make that trouble worse is “fuel”. A similar expression is “fan the flames”.
Examples
People are already unhappy, and if the government allows oil prices to increase it’ll just be adding fuel to the fire.
If Sonu is angry, don’t say anything. You’ll just be adding fuel to the fire.
Shouting at a crying child just adds fuel to the fire.
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