Fight Fire with Fire
Meaning
To respond in like manner; a desperate measure.
Origin
In order to extinguish huge prairie and forest fires in the early West, desperate American settlers would sometimes set fire to a strip of land in the path of the advancing fire and then extinguish it, leaving a barren strip with nothing for the approaching fire to feed on. Although effective, this tactic was (and is) extremely dangerous, as the backfire itself can get out of control.
