Spontaneous combustion

Spontaneous human combustion

Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) refers to the belief that the human body sometimes burns without an external source of ignition. There is much speculation and controversy regarding SHC, for it is not a proven natural phenomenon. Many theories and hypotheses have attempted to explain how SHC might occur, some of which are grounded in current scientific understanding. One such hypothesis is the "wick effect", in which the clothing of the victim soaks up melted human fat and acts like the wick of a candle. Another possibility is that the clothing is caused to burn by a discharge of static electricity. The likelihood that truly spontaneous human combustion actually takes place is remote, due to the presence of water and the lack of highly flammable compounds and oxygen in the human body

The wick effect

The wick effect is the partial destruction of a human body by fire, when the clothing of the victim soaks up melted human fat and acts like the wick of a candle. The wick effect is a real phenomenon that has been shown to occur under certain conditions. Since both wick effect and SHC would necessarily involve the incineration of bodies, and therefore the melting and combustion of body fat, there are many similarities between the known phenomenon (wick effect) and the alleged phenomenon (SHC).

The standard explanation offered by scientists is as follows (with minor variations):

* The victim dies suddenly (e.g., from a heart attack), or loses consciousness or mobility from excessive drinking.
* A cigarette or some other source of flame ignites the victim's clothing, which starts to burn, possibly fuelled by the spill of distilled beverages, and kills the victim if he or she is not already dead.
* The wick effect occurs.

However, there are problems with this attempted explanation:

* In many cases it has been proven by pathologists that the victim was alive at the time they burned. For example: In the case of Robert Francis Bailey, it was found at autopsy that he had died due to suffocating on the fumes of his own combustion.[citation needed]
* The presence of accelerants such as alcohol is seldom if ever found in cases of SHC. Alcoholism seems to have been the moralistic Victorian explanation for instances of alleged SHC, perhaps due to the religious influence of the temperance movement. Alcohol, being flammable, was supposed to permeate the body, making it prone to sudden ignition. Thus, drunkenness was not only a disgrace, but liable to result in terrifying retribution along semi-Biblical lines. It is now known that this cannot possibly happen. Body tissues cannot become so saturated in alcohol that they will catch fire. Nor can the explanation that victims' clothing had become soaked in alcohol be supported. However, a number of apparent SHC fatalities have involved alcoholics.
* It is more difficult to start a fire on a person's body using a cigarette than is popularly imagined � flesh cannot itself be set aflame by a cigarette, and, although skin can be melted, the cigarette is itself extinguished in the process. Nor can clothing soaked in fuel be ignited so easily: the glowing tip of a cigarette burns at 700 degrees Celsius (850 when puffed), which is sufficient to ignite most spirits (eg, paraffin). However, capillary action means that the cigarette is doused by the spirit, unless the spirit is already warmed or diffused. Even a lit cigarette dropped into a bucket of paraffin, or even gasoline, will not normally cause a fire, for the same reasons. This is contrary to the normal expectations of most people. Moreover, many victims of alleged SHC are non-smokers; hence, cigarettes cannot always be the cause of unexplained human fires.

This is one of the most famous photos from an alleged case of spontaneous human combustion. On December 5, 1966, 92-year-old retired doctor John Bentley died from a fire of unknown origin in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. The elderly man walked with the aid of a walking frame, clearly visible in the photo. The fire apparently was confined to a small area of the doctor's bathroom, which burned a hole in the floor. Most of his body was reduced to ash.

The static flash fire hypothesis

This is a condition in which static electricity apparently builds up to such dangerous levels in the human body that a sparking discharge can ignite clothing. In static flash fire cases, the voltage that builds up is much higher, producing bright flashes capable of illuminating dark surroundings, or shimmering flame-like effects, depending on circumstances. In some cases, the charge is apparently sufficient to ignite dust or fluff clinging to clothing, which may then set clothing alight. One famous case occurred in 2005, in which an office worker reportedly managed to light up his office after building up a huge charge by walking across a carpet. Several unanswered objections, however, mark the story as a possible hoax.

The phenomenon of massive static charges on human bodies was first noted by the late professor Robin Beach, of Brooklyn, New York, founder of the scientific detective agency 'Robin Beach Engineers Associated'. One of his very first clients was an Ohio factory-owner whose plant was suddenly plagued with as many as eight small fires a day. Professor Beach's solution was to persuade each of the factory's employees in turn to step on to a metal plate while holding an electrode; at the same time he took reading from an electrostatic voltmeter. One of the workers was a young woman recently employed; when she stepped on to the metal plate, the meter showed a tremendous jump. She registered 30,000 volts of electrostatic electricity and a resistance of 500,000 ohms. Professor Beach recommended that she be transferred to some other part of the factory where she would not come into contact with combustible materials. Apparently, the fires immediately went down in frequency.

Many of the alleged victims of SHC are recorded as bursting in flames from 'within'. Electrical engineers have pointed out that no known discharge could possibly have such an effect. Also, many of the accounts state that the victim's body was almost entirely consumed by fire, yet their surrounding were completely undamaged by the flames that engulfed them, which is in flat contradiction of natural law. It must be noted, however, that alleged SHC cases tend to be exaggerated along the lines of urban legends, and that thus "little" damage to a body's surroundings (such as is found when a human body burns due to the wick effect; described above) may become "no" damage in retellings of the case; the reliable first-hand accounts are far less unequivocal about whether the victim's immediate surroundings showed marks of fire or not. See for example the case of Mary Reeser, where objects near the body, while not lit afire, nonetheless showed considerable damage due to great heat.

General misidentification hypothesis

Misidentification theory holds that a number of unsolved fire cases have built up into an overarching SHC myth. This may include wick effect and static flash as other unusual fires.
In modern times, Beard and Drysdale cite the following as a single example of misidentification (taken from the files of CSICOP):
An unnamed man was leaving his place of work (unstipulated but presumably a garage or similar, for reasons which will be immediately clear) when he lit a cigarette and immediately burst into flames. It transpired that the victim had been in the habit of using a compressed air line to blow detritus off his clothing. On this occasion, the victim had accidentally used a pure oxygen line, temporarily (but greatly) increasing the flammability of his clothing.

Spontaneous human combustion as an anomalous phenomenon

Adherents to non-mainstream SHC beliefs hold that the cause of SHC is none of the above, but that it is a discrete and genuine phenomenon in which the flesh of the human body catches fire without any external cause.[citation needed]
The field of SHC theories divides broadly into two camps: the supernaturalists and the non-supernaturalists. The supernaturalists believe that the cause of SHC is almost certainly beyond human knowledge forever. The non-supernaturalists believe that the cause of SHC either is knowable or will be knowable.[citation needed]
There is little or no general agreement between those advocating such SHC conjectures. Moreover, there is little agreement between the SHC non-supernaturalists and the SHC skeptics.[citation needed]
John E Heymer and 'The Entrancing Flame'

Described by Joe Nickell as an "English coal-miner-turned-constable,"[11], John E Heymer wrote a 1996 book entitled The Entrancing Flame.
The title is derived from one deductive conclusion that he has reached from examining many cases, namely that SHC victims are lonely people who fall into a trance immediately before their incineration.
Heymer suggests that a psychosomatic process in such emotionally-distressed people can trigger off a chain reaction by freeing hydrogen and oxygen within the body and setting off a chain reaction of mitochondrial explosions.
Heymer's theories have won little support. Ian Simmons, in a review of The Entrancing Flame, criticized Heymer thus: "He seems to be under the illusion that [hydrogen and oxygen] exist as gases in the [mitochondrial] cell and are thus vulnerable to ignition, which is, in fact, not the case."

What Remains After a Spontaneous Human Combustion Event

- The body is normally more severely burned than one that has been caught in a normal fire.
- The burns are not distributed evenly over the body; the extremities are usually untouched by fire, whereas the torso usually suffers severe burning.
- In some cases the torso is completely destroyed, the bones being reduced completely to ash.
- Small portions of the body (an arm, a foot, maybe the head) remain unburned.
- Only objects immediately associated with the body have burned; the fire never spread away from the body. SHC victims have burnt up in bed without the sheets catching fire, clothing worn is often barely singed, and flammable materials only inches away remain untouched.
- A greasy soot deposit covers the ceiling and walls, usually stopping three to four feet above the floor.
- Objects above this three to four foot line show signs of heat damage (melted candles, cracked mirrors, etc.)
- Although temperatures of about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit are normally required to char a body so thoroughly (crematoria, which usually operate in the neighborhood of 2,000 degrees, leave bone fragments which must be ground up by hand), frequently little or nothing around the victim is damaged, except perhaps the exact spot where the deceased inited.

Corpse of a woman with Parkinson's disease who accidentally caught fire by a burning cigarette.

Corpse of a woman who fell into a fireplace after a heart attack.

While unreliable circumstantial evidence abounds, as in the cases cited above, there have never been any eyewitness accounts to testify that Spontaneous Human Combustion actually occurs.