History Main / FieryCoverUp

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. In "Killer", Avon plans to steal a component of a Federation code machine. He has to do this without the Federation knowing as they'd just change their codes, so he programs the component to show a fault so it will be thrown in the garbage where they can easily steal it. To give him time to do this an electrical fire is started so the men will go to their fire-drill stations, leaving the computer room unattended. Then the base falls into chaos through a [[ThePlague genuine emergency]], and Avon realises they can just steal it directly and start a fire in the room that will seem like random damage or vandalism.

* ColdSquad: In "Taggert Family", the killer sets fire to Taggert family home to destroy evidence and make it impossible to determine time of death.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest''

** The episode "In the Pale Moonlight" involves a plot orchestrated by [[TheCaptain Starfleet Captain Sisko]], with the help of Cardassian spy Garak, wherein the Romulans will be provided with a forged recording of the Dominion leadership planning an invasion of their empire. They hope that such a recording would finally convince the Romulans to join the war. Things take a turn for the worse when the Romulan envoy who arrives to collect the recording realizes almost immediately that [[MemeticMutation it is a fake]]. On his way back to Romulan territory, however, his ship mysteriously blows up. It is then discovered that the plan being executed was not the one that Starfleet thought they had been executing; Instead Garak had orchestrated an intricate plan of his own to murder the envoy in such a way that the Romulans would believe the recording was in fact ''real''.
** In "Armageddon Game", Bashir and O'Brien are sent to an alien planet to help the government dispose of a dangerous biological weapon. However, the government wishes to ensure that no one with knowledge of the weapon could ever recreate it, so they try to kill the two once their business is done. To cover up for the (failed) murder, the aliens send the Federation a security tape showing the two men accidentally activating some defense system and vaporizing themselves out of existence.
** {{Inverted|Trope}} in the episode "Improbable Cause", in which Cardassian spy Garak blows up his own shop in order to get the station's security chief Odo to ''start'' an investigation.

* In ''Series/TheXFiles'''s pilot, Mulder's motel room is burned to the ground to destroy evidence of alien abductions in Oregon.
** In season 2 finale "Anasazi", the Cigarette Smoking Man orders soldiers to burn down a boxcar with hybrid alien bodies. Mulder was inside of said boxcar as well.

* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', Light has an elaborate setup to hide the Death Note. It's in a drawer, under a false bottom, with a circuit underneath the false bottom, around the Death Note. There is a rubber pad that keeps the circuit from being completed when the false bottom is down; the only way to take it out is to slide the ink barrel of a pen through a small hole on the underside of the drawer to block the circuit and push the false bottom up. If the circuit is completed, the Death Note will be ignited. This way, even if they suspect that he's Kira, even if they know about the Death Note, even if they realize that there's a false bottom on the drawer, the Death Note will be reduced to ash and they will have no proof.
** Later he uses fiery deaths to dispose of [[spoiler:Kiyomi Takada and Mello]].

* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' the killer behind the game's first murder attempts to destroy evidence in the trash incinerator despite the room it's in being barred off during the time period the murder took place. [[spoiler: Fortunately for him, he's the Ultimate Baseball Star and could hurl the evidence across the room and right into the incinerator ''and'' hit the button to turn it on. Unfortunately for him, he didn't manage to burn the whole thing and left just enough for everyone to figure out what he was doing.]]

* In the famous scene of ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2'' [[spoiler:Shepherd]] orders his men to do this with [[spoiler:the body of Ghost and Roach (the Task Force 141 PlayerCharacter), who is still somewhat conscious enough to see Shepherd throw his burning cigar into the gasoline-soaked ditch. The last thing Roach sees is Shepard walking away while he burns to death.]]
* In ''VideoGame/Persona2: Eternal Punishment'', Tatsuya Sudou's murders of the Mafia hitmen [[AssassinOutclassin who were sent to kill him]], the deaths of the staff members, and his RoomFullOfCrazy were all destroyed by burning down the Sanitarium where it all took place. Then TheConspiracy used a GasLeakCoverup to cover the causes.
* In ''VideoGame/Persona4 [[UpdatedRerelease Golden]]'', [[spoiler:the "Accomplice" ending where you decided to befriend Adachi and cover up his crimes has you burned the incriminating warning letter that he sent you when you were investigating the killer. When Adachi sees you do it, he just laughs at you for betraying your pals for his friendship and essentially blackmails you since you destroyed the evidence to his crimes.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'', [[spoiler: "The Milkman" whom Thornley Towers security guard Boyd Cooper keeps worrying about is actually an alternate persona planted in his mind by Coach Oleander, with orders to burn down the asylum once Oleander and Loboto are done with their evil scheme.]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

--> '''Homer:''' Lisa, I'm very glad you brought me this. I'll see that it gets to the proper authorities. ''(throws it in the fireplace)''
--> '''Lisa:''' Dad! Why did you do that?
--> '''Homer:''' Hollywood producers have paid me a fortune, which I've already lost, for the rights to Bart's story. So I have to destroy anything that proves that story's not true. ''(takes off his shirt and throws it in the fireplace)''
--> '''Lisa:''' Why did you burn up your shirt?
--> '''Homer:''' What shirt? I don't see any shirt. ''(takes off his pants and throws it in the fireplace)'' Burn the truth! Burn the truth!

* ''Film/JamesBond''
** ''Film/TheLivingDaylights''. Necros kidnaps a Soviet defector and burns the transcript of his interrogation in a nearby fireplace. However it's later revealed that the information the defector provided is a fake, and this is only to make [=MI6=] believe otherwise. Given that British government officials have already ''heard'' the information, they act on it.
** ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'': Elektra King steals a nuclear warhead. She then plans to detonate a bomb so the authorities will think she has used all of the plutonium and stop looking for it. However, the explosion will cover-up the fact that she actually removed half the plutonium to use in her real scheme.

* ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'': Elektra King steals a nuclear warhead. She then plans to detonate a bomb so the authorities will think she has used all of the plutonium and stop looking for it. However, the explosion will cover-up the fact that she actually removed half the plutonium to use in her real scheme.

* In ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie'', Scheck burns the document proving the neighborhood as a historical landmark in front of Arnold and Harold so that his plan to demolish it will proceed. [[spoiler:This bites him in the ass when Arnold steals the surveillance footage of Scheck burning the document to not only prove the credential of the document but also expose Scheck's crime.]]

* ''Series/DeepSpaceNine'':
** The episode "In the Pale Moonlight" involves a plot orchestrated by [[TheCaptain Starfleet Captain Sisko]], with the help of Cardassian spy Garak, wherein the Romulans will be provided with a forged recording of the Dominion leadership planning an invasion of their empire. They hope that such a recording would finally convince the Romulans to join the war. Things take a turn for the worse when the Romulan envoy who arrives to collect the recording realizes almost immediately that [[MemeticMutation it is a fake]]. On his way back to Romulan territory, however, his ship mysteriously blows up. It is then discovered that the plan being executed was not the one that Starfleet thought they had been executing; Instead Garak had orchestrated an intricate plan of his own to murder the envoy in such a way that the Romulans would believe the recording was in fact ''real''.
** In "Armageddon Game", Bashir and O'Brien are sent to an alien planet to help the government dispose of a dangerous biological weapon. However, the government wishes to ensure that no one with knowledge of the weapon could ever recreate it, so they try to kill the two once their business is done. To cover up for the (failed) murder, the aliens send the Federation a security tape showing the two men accidentally activating some defense system and vaporizing themselves out of existence.
** {{Inverted}} in the episode "Improbable Cause", in which Cardassian spy Garak blows up his own shop in order to get the station's security chief Odo to ''start'' an investigation.

* ''Series/SherlockHolmes''. In ''Charles Augustus Milverton'', the lover of a married woman receives a letter from her breaking off their illicit relationship. He angrily tosses it in the fireplace and storms off. Unfortunately, his servant is in the pay of the eponymous blackmailer and quickly retrieves the letter before it burns.

* In ''VideoGame/BrokenHelix'', [[spoiler:the marines' true objective is to [[KillEmAll kill every living thing in Area 51]], be they human or alien, including Burton, [[HeKnowsTooMuch who knows too much]]]].

* In the novel ''Jericho Falls'', the U.S. government [[spoiler:arranges a fully loaded airborne tanker to crash on a small town, destroying it in the massive fireball to cover up their killing of everyone there]].

* In the Creator/AlastairReynolds novel ''Literature/ThePrefect'', the villain arranges it so that the exhaust from a starship drive would destroy a habitat where something nefarious was occurring.
** This is an unusual specimen, in that the goal was not to hide evidence; (almost) no one would have complained about the actual target being destroyed if it weren't for the fact that 900+ people were killed as a side effect.

* ''VideoGame/AlbaAWildlifeAdventure'': [[spoiler: Paco burns the petition. It's also implied that he might have committed arson on the building site after the mayor is arrested.]]

* Taken UpToEleven in ''Literature/TheGoldenRendezvous'' by Creator/AlistairMacLean. The villains steal the latest mini-nuke from the United States and plan to use it to destroy all evidence and witnesses after their robbery of a gold shipment. The protagonist points out that using explosives isn't guaranteed to work, as people have survived the explosion of naval magazines packed with TNT during wartime. Likewise shooting everyone would take hours and waste valuable time. Of course, as the mini-nuke is the latest technology, [[CutLexLuthorACheck why didn't the criminals just sell it?]]

* On August 27, 2011, 53 bodies believed to be Libyan civilians arrested by pro-Qaddafi loyalists for interrogation were found in the remains of a warehouse, which had been burnt by the pro-Qaddafi forces to keep them from rebel forces. There may have actually been 150 dead. '''[[http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/2011inphotos120711/s_y35_22293929.jpg Very grisly and probably NSFW photo here.]]'''

* In ''VideoGame/Persona2 Eternal Punishment'', Tatsuya Sudou's murders of the Mafia hitmen [[AssassinOutclassin who were sent to kill him]], the deaths of the staff members, and his RoomFullOfCrazy were all destroyed by burning down the Sanitarium where it all took place. Then TheConspiracy used a GasLeakCoverup to cover the causes.
* In ''VideoGame/Persona4: [[UpdatedRerelease Golden]]'', [[spoiler:the "Accomplice" ending where you decided to befriend Adachi and cover up his crimes has you burned the incriminating warning letter that he sent you when you were investigating the killer. When Adachi sees you do it, he just laugh at you for betraying your pals for his friendship and essentially blackmails you since you destroyed the evidence to his crimes.]]
* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'', in case 2, the killer tries to burn their clothes they wore during the crime.
** In the first case of ''Dual Destinies'', the killer explicitly states that he loves explosions for how they destroy evidence. [[spoiler: He murdered someone using a bomb as a blunt object and then detonated it.]]
** However, a later case reveals that [[spoiler:the bomb was actually detonated by an international spy to destroy evidence with his DNA on it. It's still this trope either way.]]
** There is a [[SubvertedTrope unique subversion]] in Case 5 of ''Spirit of Justice''. [[spoiler: It is revealed that you set the Founder's Orb on fire to activate it. The judge even finds the irony in this.]]

* In the 2020 miniseries ''The Head'', the crew of an Antarctic research station start a fire to cover up the [[spoiler:accidental death of a woman during an AttemptedRape.]] However the fire causes ACrackInTheIce to open up and swallow the station before it can be destroyed. This causes problems when global warming causes the station to become uncovered again, meaning the evidence is still there for anyone who comes looking. [[spoiler:The corpse of the victim is indeed recovered and an autopsy reveals she had no smoke in her lungs, meaning she was already dead when the fire started.]]

* Attempted in ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' when a top-secret mop-up mission [[spoiler:in China]] is to be obliterated by a bomb strike, conveniently also wiping out the agents tasked for the cleanup. The agents involved are not happy. (although the installation is totally destroyed, so that part of it succeeded)

* In ''HeyArnoldTheMovie'', Scheck burned the document proving the neighbor as a historical landmark in front of Arnold and Harold so that his plan to demolish the neighbor would proceed. [[spoiler:This bites him in the ass when Arnold stole the surveillance footage of Scheck burning the document to not only prove the credential of the document but also expose Scheck's crime.]]

[[folder:Film - Animation]]

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

* ''Film/Terminator2'' has a benevolent version of this where Sarah Connor and friends are on a mission to destroy all evidence of Skynet artificial intelligence technology to prevent the billions from dying when the system instigates nuclear strikes worldwide.

* In ''Film/TheMummy1999'', Terence Bay light the map to Hamunaptra on fire when Eve and Jonathan showed him the map and the possibility of the city's existence. [[spoiler:Later in the film, it is revealed that he is an ally to the Medjai, who wants to keep the city a secret so that no one could resurrect Imhotep, making his burning of the map deliberate.]]