catch fire vs go up in flames

catch fire

verb
  • To become engulfed in flames, to combust. 

  • To become very popular or widespread; to take off. 

  • To be inspired by passion or zeal. 

go up in flames

verb
  • To catch fire. 

  • To be cancelled or ruined without any hope of return. 

How often have the words catch fire and go up in flames occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )