History Main / KillItWithFire

* In ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'', this is one of the best ways to deal with nanotech attackers. The tiny robots can't shed heat effectively and will rapidly disintegrate when heated.

* Wiki/{{Uncyclopedia}} refers to fire as "nature's weapon attachment".

* In "[[https://www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_fairy-tales/the_drummer The Drummer]]" -a variant of "Literature/TheSwanMaiden" folktale collected by the Creator/TheBrothersGrimm-, the lead character throws the old witch into a bonfire to save the three maidens from her curse.

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Evolution}}''; the military plots to destroy the largest sample of the alien entity with tons upon tons of napalm. However, as the scientists find out right as the plan is about to be carried out, fire makes the thing reproduce ''even faster''; a small sample in a petri dish exposed to the flame of a lit match is enough to make it overtake one wall of the room they were in. Instead, the day is saved with [[strike:[[ItMakesSenseInContext dandruff shampoo]]]] [[ProductPlacement Head & Shoulders]].

* The 1931 version of ''Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}}'' ends with the Monster being trapped in a burning windmill, and (presumably) killed. As we find out in ''Film/BrideOfFrankenstein'', it [[NotQuiteDead didn't quite do the trick]]...

** Franchise/MonsterVerse:

* In some variants of tale type ATU 425, "The Search of the Lost Husband" (e.g., from Iran, Afghanistan, Romania and Hungary), the heroine marries an enchanted prince in animal form and secretly destroys his animal skin by throwing it in an oven. This causes their separation and the heroine's search for her lost husband.

* Aside from sonic weapons, fire is the only other weapon generally effective against symbiotes like Venom that give Franchise/SpiderMan such a hard time.
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

** In ''ComicBook/Supergirl1982'' issue #23, a pyrokinetic mutant attempts--and fails--to burn ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} to ashes.

** ''ComicBook/SupermanVsShazam'': When Supergirl and ComicBook/MaryMarvel storm his stronghold, Karmang casts a fire spell to try to burn them to ashes.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

* ''Fanfic/AlternateTailSeries'': After the incident with the Jiggle-Butt Gang, Carla takes the jumpsuit they made Kagura wear and has Levy burn it. Unfortuently, it does nothing to erase the image of her partner wearing it.

* ''WebVideo/JoJosBizarreAdventureAbridged'': Avdol has learned that the only way to defeat this trope... is to BURN it!

* Subverted in ''Film/ChildsPlay'', where the protagonists burn devil doll Chucky to a crisp. It only makes him angrier and freakier-looking.

* ''Film/FireTwister'': [[spoiler:Not directly this, but the only way to finish off the fire twister is by using an explosive object that's strong enough. This is first attempted unsuccessfully by Anthony with fuel canisters while driving a car, leading to his death. Scott, Carla and Barbie later take Anthony's method with a fire engine truck and a C4 bomb; the only difference is that they jump off from the truck before it touches the twister, thus surviving.]]

*** In ''Film/Godzilla2014'', Ford kills [[spoiler:the [=MUTO=] clutch]] by knocking the valves off a fuel truck, setting them on fire, and running very fast. And Godzilla's atomic breath, which takes the form of a blue-hot fire stream. [[spoiler:Godzilla later force-fed the female MUTO his atomic breath]].

*** In ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'', [[spoiler:King Ghidorah is finally killed for good by the empowered Burning Godzilla, who subjects Ghidorah to a barrage of increasingly powerful nuclear pulses which reduces everything but a single head to ash on contact with extreme heat.]]

* ''Film/{{Nightbooks}}'': [[spoiler:Much like ''Literature/HanselAndGretel'', Alex and Yaz kill the original witch by luring her into a furnace and trapping her inside, roasting her.]]

* In ''Film/{{Savaged}}'', [[spoiler:the only way Dane can find to release Zoe from her RevenantZombie state is to burn her to ashes.]]

* In ''Film/TheThing1982'', [[FromASingleCell the smallest part of the alien life form]] is capable of [[BodyHorror mutation and assimilation]], so the only sure way to destroy it completely is with fire. But even then, it's not even particularly flammable. Fire is the only way to do it, but it's still not a very good way.
** However, this was subverted in ''Film/TheThingFromAnotherWorld''. Fire ''could'' kill the alien, but since it burned slowly and did not feel pain it could easily escape and douse itself, [[InfernalRetaliation setting fire to anything it touched along the way]].

* Completely averted in, ''Tomie: Another Face'', one of the movie adaptations of the manga, ''Manga/{{Tomie}}'', where the eponymous {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le {{Body Horror}}ific teenage girl is burned in the incinerator by the DoomedProtagonist. However, her burned ashes gather up and create her face in the air, reminding the protagonist that she will never die and that every single one of her ashes will become a new Tomie.

* With a twist in ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles''. They don't actually kill Terminators with fire, but when they do manage to take one out with other methods, they have to burn and melt the endoskeleton with thermite to prevent bits of future-tech falling into the wrong hands and being used to reverse-engineer [=SkyNet=].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyEwgPX0nlo Perish In Fire]] by Monster Magnet

* "Burn MF" by Music/FiveFingerDeathPunch invokes this, with gratuitous usage of [[ClusterFBomb Cluster F-Bombs]] and a couple of {{Atomic F Bomb}}s for good measure.

** At the 2020 ''Tables, Laders & Chairs'' pay-per-view event, Orton set "The Fiend" Wrestling/BrayWyatt on fire in the ring at the end of their Firefly Inferno Match. Earlier in the match, Orton had set the Fiend's back on fire during a backstage brawl, winning the match, but the action was just getting heated up (no pun intended). The Fiend, [[InfernalRetaliation while still on fire]], chased Orton into the ring, where an RKO knocked Fiend unconscious. Then, Orton took a gasoline can, doused Fiend's body, and set him on fire, laughing evily as he posed on the stage. [[note]](According to a recap of the event by the Pro Wrestling Torch website, as cameras were focused on Orton retrieving the gas can, ring technicians quickly pulled Windham Rotunda (who plays the Fiend/Bray Wyatt) from the ring and replaced it with a mannequin dressed in the Fiend's clothing. This was not seen by the Tropicana Field's virtual audience or the pay-per-view audience.)[[/note]]

* During the Anarchy in the Arena match at AEW Double or Nothing 2022, Eddie Kingston, who had been hit by a fireball weeks earlier by Chris Jericho, doused Jericho in gasoline and was about to set him alight before his own teammate, Bryan Danielson, [[EvenEvilHasStandards grabbed the matchbook out of Kingston's hands and threw it away]].

* In 2011, a fire broke out at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Walt Disney World]]'s ''Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management'', but for the most part only damaged an [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} Iago]] animatronic beyond repair [[note]]And not the one that looked intentionally burnt and injured from divine punishment in-show[[/note]], resulting in the much-criticized attraction being overhauled into an abridged version of the original show. Many Disney fans jokingly attributed it to divine intervention from the actual Tiki Gods.

* In ''Webcomic/TropeOverdosedTheWebcomic'', while doing some LevelGrinding, Alice has burned [[OverlyLongGag lots]] [[http://tropeoverdosed.pcriot.com/?p=32 of zombies]].

* An epic [[http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/06/kill-it-with-fire-oh-wait-they-already.html Cake Wreck]].

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': [[spoiler:Fire Lord Ozai decides this trope is an appropriate response to a recalcitrant Earth Kingdom. Why bother with normal methods of subjugation when you can just ''set the continent on fire''? Azula suggested it.]]

* In ''Fanfic/{{Luminosity}}'', as in [[Literature/{{Twilight}} the text it's based on]], this is the only way to consistently kill a vampire.

* ''{{Film/Bit}}'': A vampire's heart must be burned to kill them. In some cases, like the very powerful Vlad, even that won't work.
* In the first ''Film/{{Blade}}'' film, Blade uses fire on one of his enemies. This doesn't kill Quinn (who is a vampire) but it probably makes him wish it had, at least for a while. Funnily enough, Blade probably only set him on fire as a new form of bullying Quinn.

* In ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog22022'', Sonic and Tails are nearly tossed into a fireplace at a Siberian BadGuyBar. Tails gets out of this by challenging the patrons to a DanceOff, with the fireplace being the penalty for losing.

* This seems to be the only way of doing any sort of decent damage to [[TheBaroness Madam Rouge]] in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003''. She's damn near invulnerable to any kind of physical attacks.

[[quoteright:259:[[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kill_it_with_fire.jpg]]]]
[-[[caption-width-right:259:'''''[[KnightTemplar SUFFER NOT THE UNCLEAN TO LIVE!]]''''']]-]

** In "Headhunters", [[spoiler:Dipper and Mabel defeat the evil wax dummies by melting them, with Mabel throwing some of them in a fire for good measure]].
** In [[VignetteEpisode one segment]] of the episode "Bottomless Pit!", Dipper has his voice changed to sound much deeper. Soos' first response when hearing it is to beat Dipper with a broom and yell "Kill it! Kill it with fire!"
** In "Soos and the Real Girl", [[spoiler:Soos destroys Giffany by throwing the game disc that she originated from into an oven at a SuckECheeses]].

* ''WebVideo/JoJosBizarreAdventureAbridged'': Avdol [[CatchPhrase has learned that the only way to defeat this trope... is to BURN it]]!

* The last line of the available chapter of [[http://nothotbutspicy.com/para/50fa3/ the epic tale of Site Kilo-29]]: "Flamethrower." [[CatchPhrase He said. "Fuck Yeah."]] (don't worry, it's finished) [[spoiler:and he survives!]]

* "[[{{Catchphrase}} Hello, and welcome to]] ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'', [[{{Catchphrase}} where bad comics burn.]]" Interestingly enough, he's only ever burned five comics: ''ComicBook/SupermanAtEarthsEnd'', ''ComicBook/JLAActOfGod'', ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain'', ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'', and ''ComicBook/HolyTerror''. He notes in his "Mightily Murdered Power Rangers" review how this phrase has become TheArtifact and tells the comic not to tempt him to change that.

* Played with at the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'': One member of the [[TorchesAndPitchforks angry mob]] waves a torch in Shrek's face, hoping to scare him. Shrek licks his fingers and calmly snuffs the flame out.

*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E29OperationAnnihilate Operation Annihilate]]" the USS ''Enterprise'' finds that the mass insanity infecting various star systems reached the Federation colony on Deneva was caused by neural parasites who forced their victims to build ships to carry them on to other systems. Realizing that his command responsibilities require him to not allow the parasites to spread any further in to the Federation, Kirk prepares to destroy Deneva by OrbitalBombardment. Ultimately he does not have to destroy the colony when its found ultra-violet light harmless to most species is deadly to the parasites, and is able to use an array of such lights to free the Denevans from the parasites.

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'':

** Farnese's role as the figurehead of the Holy Iron Chain Knights is to investigate reported miracles for the Holy See... which directly translates to "burning people who don't believe or don't believe enough in the Holy See's religion at the stake." [[ADateWithRosiePalms And getting off on it]]. Plus, her history with pets and servants [[PyroManiac that didn't please her.]]

*** "Recap/StarTrekS3E14WhomGodsDestroy Whom Gods Destroy]]:" Fleet Captain Garth attempted this against the people of Antos IV but was stopped by his own crew.

** In the second ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' pilot "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E3WhereNoManHasGoneBefore Where No Man Has Gone Before]]" the Captain of the Earth ship Valiant destroys his ship with his crew aboard to keep one of his crew mutated by the galactic barrier from escaping. Later on when the ''Enterprise'' crosses the barrier and Gary Mitchell begins to rapidly advance Kirk decides to maroon him on Delta Vega before realizing it was too dangerous to leave him alive. Kirk goes off to hunt down Mitchell, telling Dr. Piper if they don't hear from him in 12 hours to leave for the nearest Starbase with Kirk's recommendation that the entire planet be bombarded with lethal neutron radiation to keep Mitchell or Dehmer from escaping the planet.

* In one episode of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', an alien race is seen using flamethrowers on people who have been infected by a disease that effectively turns them into another alien species.

* ''Film/DontListen'': After discovering [[spoiler:the corpse of the witch who's ghost is haunting the house]] in the TortureCellar, Germán states that [[spoiler:people found guilty of being witches were burned at the stake. He then states that to stop the haunting, they need to burn the corpse]].

* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': Pretty much the only sure way to kill [[TheAssimilator the Many]]'s cells, due to which Rodan and Godzilla actively and respectively use their fiery {{Breath Weapon}}s to kill as much of the Many's infected tissue as possible.

* [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos In the Slender Man fic]] ''Fanfic/ByTheFiresLight'', it is not the heroes but the Slender Man itself who uses fire to kill things and cleanse the Earth of things it finds abhorrent (which is pretty much everything).

* ''Fanfic/TheWorldIsFilledWithMonsters'': Moonfire, a kind of extremely dangerous and volatile magical flame capable of consuming just about anything, is used to great effect against the spiders. It's later used to attempt to take down Blightweaver. [[spoiler:In this, [[SubvertedTrope it fails miserably]]]].

*** In ''Film/Godzilla2014'', Ford kills [[spoiler:the [=MUTO=] clutch]] by knocking the valves off a fuel truck, setting them on fire, and running very fast. And, of course, Godzilla's atomic breath, which takes the form of a blue-hot fire stream. [[spoiler:Godzilla later force-fed the female MUTO his atomic breath]].

* The last resort of ''Film/TheRock'', should TheSoCalledCoward and the GentlemanThief fail to recover the weaponized phlebotinum, involves the Air Force drenching the island in thermite. For those of you who don't know, thermite is fire squared.[[note]]Actually, thermite is basically rust and aluminum powder. While the reaction between iron oxide and aluminum is extremely exothermic, it has a high activation energy. However, once you do get it going, it will burn through and/or melt almost anything; one of the products of the reaction is elemental iron, which comes out in ''molten droplets''.[[/note]]

* ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'': A literal case of fighting fire with fire occurs when a fire breaks out in the garden that supplies the spaceship's oxygen the MasterComputer predicts it will burn for hours, endangering the entire ship. The decision is made to flood the garden with oxygen, causing a flash fire which consumes all the oxygen at once, thereby extinguishing the fire. Of course this just leads to [[AlmostOutOfOxygen more]] [[ColdEquation problems]].

** The Mad King's daughter Daenerys Targaryen's solution to pretty much every problem, though averted with her even-more-brutal execution of Doreah and Xaxos. She uses fire to kill Mirri Maz Duur, Pyat Pree, and Kraznys mo Nakloz and many other slavers of Astapor. She also does this to [[spoiler:every single Khal of the Dothraki]] in Season 6. [[AssholeVictim No one's mourning them.]] Her dragons have been known to do this, too, because, well, '''''they're dragons'''''. Once her dragons are large enough to fight, she can do this whenever she wants, though dragons aren't a prerequisite for this, as the khals found out. And in Season 8, [[spoiler:she does this to pretty much ''the entire city of King's Landing'']].

** Angels and even more powerful supernatural beings have killed other entities by causing them to burst into flame or burn from the inside-out. It's also how the angels before the Apocalypse sentenced their underlings to death -- Zachariah says, being fired is "pretty damn literal" among angels.

** Hell, in his [[TheDissTrack diss track]] "No Vaseline," he actually entertained the thought of doing this to Eazy-E:

* "Burn MF" by Music/FiveFingerDeathPunch basically invokes this, with gratuitous usage of [[ClusterFBomb Cluster F-Bombs]] and a couple of {{Atomic F Bomb}}s for good measure.

** Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu burn incense in a censer when God hadn't told them to. "So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord."

** Nebuchadnezzar's preferred method of execution in the book of Daniel.

** In Judges 18 the Danites while looking for land massacred the people of Laish and "...burned the city with fire."

* Fire deals aggravated damage (much harder to heal) to pretty much every creature in the ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'' (the primary exception is demons). In the [[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness new one]], fire just deals lethal damage (painful, but not "OW MY VERY BEING IS RENDED" like with aggravated) to mortals and those not vulnerable to it. TabletopGame/{{Vampire|TheRequiem}}s, TabletopGame/{{Promethean|TheCreated}}s, and TabletopGame/{{mumm|yTheCurse}}ies receive aggravated damage from it, however (Vampires and mummies because they're desiccated corpses held together and made lively by magic, and Prometheans because the "Divine Fire" that gives them life overloads when exposed to fire).

** Not to be outdone, the Eldar don't just bring flamethrowers - they bring a weapon that literally creates a wave of flame-like ''stuff'' that is actually torn space leading into hell. It rips through even the strongest armor, as Hellfire should, and can even carry those it wounds into hell, never to be seen again. Not so much "Kill it with fire" as "replace the space where it's standing with solar-core-hot fire".

* ''VisualNovel/MonsterProm'': This is [[HotAsHell Damien]] [[AxCrazy Lavey's]] preferred method of destruction. One event has you go on a date with him which basically consists of the usual dinner and a movie, but with arson included.

* ''Webcomic/UnholyBlood'': One of the only effective ways of killing a vampire is burning it, but vampires who've had enough blood can resist fire unless you literally throw them into a blast furnace. This is how the police execute vampire criminals.

A SuperTrope to MatchstickWeapon and FireKeepsItDead. See also IncendiaryExponent, ManOnFire, BurnBabyBurn, FireBreathingWeapon, BurnTheUndead, HomemadeFlamethrower, BurnTheWitch, FanaticalFire, GasolineDousing, and {{Hellfire}} (for when mundane fire doesn't do the job). Compare StuffBlowingUp and PlayingWithFire -- for when someone has fire as a superpower, and MurderByCremation -- when an ordinary person is lit on fire. When this just makes things worse, see InfernalRetaliation. May also overlap with AMoltenDateWithDeath if lava is involved. The less-used opposite is either KillItWithWater or KillItWithIce, or even HealItWithFire. Contrast ImmuneToFire.

* In ''Franchise/XMen'' story ''ComicBook/TheBroodSaga'', burning them down with his fire is Lockheed's preferred method of dispatching the Brood.