表达 fan the flame 的意思是故意煽动、怂恿他人，火上浇油，使已经令人不快的情绪或紧张局势变得更糟。

例句

Don't fan the flames - the situation is already bad enough.

Such behaviours are only fanning the flames.

The speech seemed to have fanned the flames.

请注意

另外，表达 go down in flames 的意思是某事以失败告终，就像被烈火烧尽了一样。而且事情的失败很可能是出人意料的。

例句

The project went down in flames when, at the last minute, the manager cut the budget in half.

Our plan to redecorate went down in flames when the landlord said no.