History Main / FieryCoverUp

** The fire that destroyed Stella's apartment was thought to be this trope when a corpse was discovered in a neighboring apartment. Subverted when the "murder victim" was found to have died of an injured spleen from an unrelated accident two days earlier, making her presence at the time of the fire a coincidence.
** Played straight in a much later episode where a perp tricked the mother of a missing college student into setting a fire to destroy evidence in return for information on the whereabouts of her child.

* ''Series/Siren2018'': After Donna and Chris escaped, the military torched their facility where both had been imprisoned held to cover it up.

* In the ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' episode "Surprise Party", this turns out to be part of the DarkSecret behind the burned house on a plot of land that is featured prominently in said episode, as the original owner of the house started the fire while a house party was taking place, ultimately claiming 15 party-goers' lives, in order to cover up for his murder of one party guest he got in an altercation with and the subsequent murder of one other party guest because that other guest wouldn't start screaming after witnessing the initial murder and the original owner wanted to LeaveNoWitnesses.

* In ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'', when [[spoiler:Jean Loring accidentally kills Sue Dibny]], she tries to cover it up by burning her body with a flame thrower.

* In ''Other Paths to Glory'' by Creator/AnthonyPrice, the bad guys set fire to a building to disguise a theft, but don't carry off the cover-up well enough to prevent the firefighters recognising it for what it is.

* In ''Return Match'' by Creator/PhilipKDick, an alien spacecraft is being used as an IllegalGamblingDen. If raided by the authorities, [[WeaponizedExhaust it takes off to destroy the evidence...including their own customers.]]

* In the Creator/DeanKoontz novel ''Sole Survivor'', an NTSB engineer named Minh Tran analyzes the flight data recorder from a crashed plane, but someone doesn't want the public to know what's on it. He is killed and the recorder is destroyed in what is described as "an impossibly intense fire."

* In a short story by Creator/PhilipKDick, an alien spacecraft is being used as an IllegalGamblingDen. If raided by the authorities, [[WeaponizedExhaust it takes off to destroy the evidence...including their own customers.]]

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

* In ''Destiny is a Hazy Thing'', Naruto and Hinata use an explosion to cover up their discovery of a "dangerous knowledge" stash and the deaths of the two ROOT agents who saw them.
* In ''Fanfic/NewWorldWithoutEnd'' Light and Mikami torch [[spoiler: the Yellowbox warehouse.]]

* RecycledInSpace in a short story by Creator/PhilipKDick where an alien spacecraft is being used as an IllegalGamblingDen. If raided by the authorities, [[WeaponizedExhaust it takes off to destroy the evidence...including their own customers.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Series/TheCityHunter https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/City_Hunter_Evidence_Disposal_6043.jpg]]]]

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': Kemen tries to sabotage the expedition by leaking the gasoline from the casks. Isildur, hiding on one of the ships, catches Kemen and tries to stop him. They fight and accidentally set on fire the ship, the explosion destroying a second one in the process. Isildur saves his life and lies to his father that Kemen was on a fishing boat and was simply caught up in the explosion and he had to save his life. Isildur theorizes that it was all an accident provoked by one of the casks. Elendil takes everything at the face value.

** In ''Film/TheXFilesFightTheFuture'' (immediately following the above) an office building is bombed to cover up the bodies of some people who died because of TheConspiracy. Notable in that while the FBI were tipped off to the bomb, they were given the wrong building. Mulder [[GutFeeling for whatever reason]] decides to search the real target. He and Scully manage to evacuate the entire building before the bomb blows, and [[RevealingCoverup the "victims" tip them off that something was wrong]]. They had multiple confirmations that all floors were evacuated.

* In the ''TableTopGame/DarkMatter'' adventure "the Killing Jar", TheMenInBlack try to kill the PlayerCharacters. If they catch one alone, they make it look like suicide. Two becomes murder-suicide. More, and they "arrange for a tragic fire".

* ''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.