from frying pan to fire

From a bad, stressful, or dangerous situation into one that is even worse. Those poor refugees escaped the famine but ended up in a war zone—from frying pan to fire. I thought my old job was stressful, but my new one is 10 times worse. It's like going from frying pan to fire. A: "Now that Christmas is over, shouldn't things be less hectic for you?" B: "Nope, in our family, we have five birthdays between December 27 and January 8. Every Christmas, we just go from frying pan to fire."