城门失火，殃及池鱼

城门失火，殃及池鱼

Literally means:

a fire on the city gate brings disasters to the fish in a nearby pool

Actually means:

get those close-by into trouble together

殃 refers to misfortune, disaster; 池 refers to the river protecting the city gate.

When the city gate is on fire, people rush to put out fire with the water taken from the nearby river. When the water is used up, fish in the river will die on the dried riverbed. This phrase figuratively describes that someone is implicated and suffers a great loss.

殃，灾祸；池，护城河。

城门着了火，大家都用护城河里的水来救火，水用完了，水里的鱼因为没有水而干死了。比喻受连累而遭到灾难或损失。