tinderbox

IPA: tˈɪndɝbɑks

(historical) A small container containing flint, steel, and tinder (dry, finely-divided fibrous matter), once used to help kindle a fire.
(by extension) A place that is so dry and hot that there is danger of fire.
(figurative) A potentially dangerous situation.

Examples of "tinderbox" in Sentences

All homes in tinderbox zones should be designed so that the likelihood of fires spreading to other homes is reduced.
And the president should have done it earlier, is lay out what kind of tinderbox situation we have in the Middle East.
George Clooney travelled to Sudan as part of an international effort to defuse the short term tinderbox of a controversial poll.
The tinderbox is a system set up 40 years ago to make changes in the Legislature-approved budget when lawmakers aren't in session.
Years of drought, along with tree diseases and bugs among the foothills 'pine and chaparral, have turned the area into a "tinderbox," Goodell said.
Years of drought in the Tehachapi area, along with tree diseases and bugs among the foothills 'pine and chaparral, have turned the area into a "tinderbox," said county fire Battalion Chief
Years of drought in the Tehachapi area, along with tree diseases and bugs among the foothills 'pine and chaparral, have turned the area into a "tinderbox," said county fire Battalion Chief David Goodell.
MARTIN: You know, similarly, Mary Kate, your former boss, in the days after the Los Angeles riots in the wake of the Rodney King verdict, also, you know, faced a similar, it's not quite the same thing, but a very sort of similar kind of tinderbox situation.