fan the flames

So if Ellen still cares what we think, her 70 minutes of standup might have been better spent by actually grappling with her peccadilloes, rather than using them to fan the flames of her own ego.

“It’ll literally fan the flames,” said Philip Gonsalves, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego.

"Trump killed that bill because he knew if we fixed the border, he'd lose his ability to divide us, his ability to fan the flames of fear about people who come from different places," Mr Murphy said.

So did these false and unfounded social media posts fan the flames of unrest in Southport?

"We have never done anything to fan the flames. We stand firmly on the side of peace and dialogue," he said in his speech.