Spontaneous human combustion Totally Explained

Everything about Spontaneous Human Combustion totally explained

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 isn't a proven natural phenomenon. Many theories and hypotheses have attempted to explain how SHC might occur, but those which rely on current scientific understanding say that instances mistaken for spontaneous combustion actually required a source of ignition. 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.

Possible explanations

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).
A modern example is the unnamed woman discussed in a 1965 paper entitled "A Case of Spontaneous Combustion" by Professor David Gee, Head of the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Leeds.
Professor Gee states:
ť "Belief in the occurrence of spontaneous combustion is of respectable antiquity. More recently opinion has swung away from the quasi-supernatural views of earlier years, to regard such cases as due to unusual degrees of flammability of the human body in certain circumstances, distinguishing the condition with the name preternatural combustion."

Professor Gee's article concerns an 85-year-old woman who fell dead in her home of a heart attack. Her head landed in the hearth of her open coal fire and her body was "[...] grossly incinerated, apart from the right foot which lay beyond the damaged floorboards. Both arms and the left leg had been almost completely destroyed." That the victim was dead before the combustion began was learned from an examination of the remaining parts of her body, which also shows how incompletely the victim's body had been destroyed:
"The coronary and internal carotid arteries showed atheromatous disease. No soot particles were present in the trachea. Blood from the right foot contained no carboxyhaemoglobin." Thus, the standard explanation offered by scientists is as follows (with minor variations):

The victim dies suddenly (for example, 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 isn't already dead.
The wick effect occurs.

Television experiment

In August 1998, using a dead pig wrapped in a blanket and placed in a mocked-up room, the BBC set out to prove the wick effect theory in its science television show QED, episode entitled "The Burning Question".
   A small amount of petrol was poured on the blanket as an accelerant. After igniting the petrol, the researchers left it to burn by itself. The temperature of the fire was regularly recorded at only around 800 °C (1472 °F).
   As the fire burned through the pig's skin, the fire melted the pig's subcutaneous fats, which flowed onto the blanket. Bone marrow, which also contains a high amount of fat, contributed to the burning.
   The surrounding furniture wasn't burned, although a television placed above a cupboard had its plastic cover melted. The fire had to be manually extinguished after seven hours. Most of the pig's body had been burned to ashes.
   From the experiment, the BBC researchers claimed to have explained the following characteristics of SHC:

The fires were highly localized. The flames of the fire were less than 50 centimeters (20 inches) high; therefore, the fire usually didn't spread to furniture in the vicinity.

The body was severely burned. The fire, although not very hot comparatively, can burn for a long period of time, as shown by the experiment. It is further fuelled by the body fat of the victim, which explains why the body can burn for such a long time.

The furniture located above the cupboards burned. The fire continuously heated the air and produced a convection current. Hot air rose and caused the plastics in the television set to melt. There are many problems with the QED program, which were raised by John E Heymer (who was unhappy with his own appearance on the show):

The wick effect, while a real phenomenon, is a slow "smoldering" process with gentle lapping flames and thus very at odds with the reported rapidity and ferocity of SHC.

The use of accelerants wasn't appropriate, since they're not a known factor in apparent SHC.

The programme made use of time-lapse photography in demonstrating the wick effect, without labeling it as such. This undoubtedly led many viewers to erroneous conclusions about the rapidity of the wick effect, which (as discussed above) is a slow process.

One section of the programme attempted to demonstrate the wick effect" on a wooden-framed stuffed armchair, presumably because of difficulties in procuring a human body and various ethical matters arising thereof. The armchair resolutely refused to behave in the manner predicted. When the armchair remained 80 percent unburned, this was announced as a partial demonstration of an effect that could happen under other conditions (if the chair were a corpse).

Fire Research Station Officer Stan Ames was shown inspecting the damaged chair and declaring: "So! Really, this is broadly what we expected to find. It can all be explained in terms of ordinary physics and chemistry." "It [theprogramme] was, however, marred by the conclusions drawn, which were not justified by the content of the programme. This is: it can't be said at the present time, that 'science' has explained beyond reasonable doubt what is happening in these unusual cases."
The writer was Dr Alan Beard, Unit of Fire Safety, University of Edinburgh and close colleague of Dr Dougal Drysdale).

Dr Drysdale had appeared in the QED programme, demonstrating the wick effect by burning animal fat wrapped in cotton. Heymer records :
Once the fat had been completely obscured by the cloth roll, which overlapped the fat by an inch on either side, the camera zoomed in for a close-up of the fat roll.
   "Suddenly, we were looking at a completely different piece of fat."
   "Whereas the first piece of fat had been overlapped by the piece of cloth by an inch on either side, the second piece of fat was now protruding about one and a half inches on the one side.[...] It was clear on the film that the fat was the sort that comes cooked a rich golden color from an oven - a process, I might add, that just happens to drive off the water."
   The fat was then shown burning away very rapidly, through (uncaptioned) time lapse photography.
   On 16 May 1989, Heymer spoke by telephone to Drysdale at Edinburgh University. Drysdale told Heymer that the fat was beef and said that it took: "A long time [toburn away], probably about two hours.
   "I'll tell you one thing, I did that experiment in Edinburgh with some animal fat from the butchers. It worked extremely well. I tried it twice. Very easy to ignite and it burned for a long time. They produced this piece of stinking animal fat down at the Fire Research Station and we couldn't light the bloody thing."
   Heymer asked if this was the reason for the unremarked-upon substitution of one piece of fat for another.
   Drysdale replied: "That's right, that's right, yes."

The programme's narrator (Anna Massey) summed up as follows: "So it seems that every aspect of these mysterious fire deaths can now be explained. Some form of ignition causes the body to burn. The heat dried out the body so that condensation forms on the windows. Once the body is dry, the fat melts and orange fatty deposits build up on surfaces like the light bulbs. It would seem the mystery is finally over."
This statement, says Heymer, appears to suggest that a waterlogged body can catch fire for long enough (and at a sufficient temperature) to dry out (requiring the evaporation of an average of 10 gallons of body water), before it can become a suitable human candle.

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 wouldn't come into contact with combustible materials. Apparently, the fires immediately went down in frequency.
The professor explained that under certain conditions (walking on carpets during dry winter weather, for example) almost anyone can build up an electrostatic charge of as much as 20,000 volts. Hence the shock we sometimes feel when touching a car door or other metal surface. Usually, the electricity is harmlessly discharged through the tips of the hair; however, the professor claimed, there are some people (he guessed around one in 100,000) whose abnormally dry skin permits them to generate as much as 30,000 volts at a time. In certain circumstances, he said, such people may be highly dangerous. They may, for example, have been the detonators that touched off explosions in hospital operating theaters whose atmosphere contained an admixture of anesthetic vapor and air. In addition, the professor was convinced that workers in ordnance factories and petroleum refineries should be tested to discover whether they've the type of skin which retains electric charges more persistently than others. He quoted an instance in which a man proved to be a hazard to himself:
ť "In one case I investigated, a driver decided to see if the battery of his car needed filling with water. It was a cold, dry fall day and the man walked a short distance on a concrete driveway, raised the hood of his car, and unscrewed the caps of the battery. There was an immediate explosion as he touched off the hydrogen gas escaping from the battery of the recently parked car. He was severely injured."

However, although Beach's theory may well account for many inexplicable fires, it doesn't account for all supposed cases of spontaneous human combustion. 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, John E Heymer wrote a 1996 book entitled The Entrancing Flame.
   The title is derived from one deductive conclusion that he's 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.
   However, Heymer's theories have no basis in scientific theory. 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 [sic] and are thus vulnerable to ignition, which is, in fact, not the case."

Alleged deaths and survivals

Deaths

Robert Francis Bailey

Dr John Irving Bentley

George I. Mott

Mary Hardy Reeser (also known as The Cinder Lady)

Jeannie Saffin

Henry Thomas

Survivals

A number of people have reported serious burns that injured their bodies with no apparent cause. If this isn't the alleged phenomenon known as SHC, it would appear to be a very closely-related occurrence. This list isn't intended to be taken as comprehensive.

Jack Angel

Professor H (University of Tennessee professor whose clothing caught fire in 1835)

Wilfred Gowthorpe

Survivors of static flash fires/events

Two examples of people surviving potentially-catastrophic static flash events are given in John E Heymer's book The Entrancing Flame. Each case is backed up by eyewitnesses
The accounts are in the form of written and signed statements from named individuals, shorn of some details to protect the privacy of correspondents. Summaries follow.

In September 1985, a young woman named Debbie Clark was walking home when she noticed an occasional flash of blue light: ť

Debbie's mother, Dianne Clark: ť

In winter 1980, Cheshire, England resident Susan Motteshead was standing in her kitchen, wearing flame-resistant pajamas, when she was suddenly engulfed in a short-lived fire that seemed to have ignited the fluff on her clothing but burned out before it could set anything properly alight. ť

The daughter, Joanne Motteshead, confirms this account and adds that the fire brigade arrived and tried (unsuccessfully) to set fire to Susan's pajamas.

." Jules Verne describes in his novel Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen (1878) that when a fictional African "King of Kazounde" tasted a punch set aflame, "An act of spontaneous combustion had just taken place. The king had taken fire like a petroleum bonbon. This fire developed little heat, but it devoured nonetheless." Verne has no doubt about SHC being the result of alcoholism : "In bodies so thoroughly alcoholized, combustion only produces a light and bluish flame, that water can't extinguish. Even stifled outside, it would still continue to burn inwardly. When liquor has penetrated all the tissues, there exists no means of arresting the combustion."
   Spontaneous combustion that doesn't harm a person is a superpower granted to many comic book characters such as the Human Torch of The Fantastic Four and Fire of the Justice League of America.
   In the movie Repo Man the incineration of a police officer by the mysterious object in the trunk of a car is cited as an example of spontaneous human combustion by a government agent ("It happens sometimes. People just explode.")
   The 1984 comic-horror film Bloodbath at the House of Death mentions that only one of 18 people murdered in the film's opening underwent spontaneous combustion.
   In the animated series Aaahh!!! Real Monsters episode "Spontaneously Combustible", main character Ickis is given a diagnosis by the school's doctor predicting he'll Spontaneously Combust due to burning belches he emits. It turns out that it was nothing but gas from eating a car battery.
   In an episode of The X-Files, Scully says that a body she's examining may have combusted, causing Mulder to remark, "Dear diary, today my heart leapt when Agent Scully suggested spontaneous human combustion..."
   In the TV series South Park, the episode "Spontaneous Combustion" involves many people in the town suddenly bursting into flames. Stan Marsh's father finds out this is caused by intestinal gas.
   In Stargate SG-1, priors of the Ori are able to spontaneously combust if they're captured, believe they're a danger to their cause, or betray the Ori.
   In an episode of Dead Like Me, Daisy witnesses a man spontaneously combust. She then remarks, "Spontaneous human combustion... I thought it was a myth."
   In the manga series Rurouni Kenshin, the character Shishio Makoto dies by spontaneous combustion during his fight with Kenshin. This occurs because Shishio sweat glands were destroyed, allowing for his internal body temperature to skyrocket during the fight, igniting his internal fats and oils.
   In the movie This Is Spinal Tap several of the band's drummers died of freak accidents, including one who spontaneously combusted on stage, leaving behind only a "globule". David St. Hubbins stated "Dozens of people spontaneously combust every year; it's just not very widely reported."
   In the MTV show Celebrity Deathmatch a former interviewer named Stacey Cornbred died that way.
   In the comic book series Sam and Max, a villain spontaneously combusts, having cornered the eponymous heroes.
   In the humor novel by Wm. Douglas Warren, the first chapter ends with the main character spontaneously combusting.
   In the Playstation game Parasite Eve spontaneous combustion is shown and attributed to Mitochondria.
   The Song Pardon Me by Incubus alludes to spontaneous combustion.
   The song OhMyGodImOnFire by the late Logan Whitehurst is about the singer watching a burning man screaming and running around, referenced as spontaneous human combustion.
   In the musical episode Once More, with Feeling of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a demon named Sweet is able to cause people to combust by making them dance to death.
   In TV series Darkplace, in episode "Once Upon A Beginning," one of Dagless’s old colleagues combusts.
   In Yukito Kishiro's science-fiction manga series, a world where science ensures eternal youth, spontaneous human combustion became the leading cause of death in higher developed zones. It is explained as psychosomatic effect which changes the body's chemical setup to ultimately lead to combustion. In the manga, spontaneous human combustion can also be caused by hypnosis.
   In an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, the character Dr. Weird has his head spontaneously combust after his moth monster escapes. In another episode, Carl's head similarly combusts but with no reason.
   In the television series Picket Fences, Mayor Bill Pugen dies from spontaneous combustion moments after his conviction for murder.
   The pilot of the television show Max Headroom featured a story about 3 second TV ads overloading a viewer's nervous system in a way that causes them to explode.
   In the comic strip "Dilbert,” one of the employees' head explodes, after he kept talking when he wasn't supposed to at a meeting. When he was asked to be quiet, he replied that he was the kind of person that had to talk, or his "head would explode.” A co-worker tested that theory by putting her hand over his mouth.
   In the computer game The Sims, it's possible for the simulated humans to spontaneously combust.
   In the manga version of X/1999, Tōru Shirō dies when her body spontaneously starts to burn, presumably, as an effect of her use of the so-called "kage-nie" powers.
   In the ER episode "Mars Attacks" a man spontaneously combusts.
   A similar experiment to the "Televised Experiment" above with the pig was done on an episode of CSI, trying to prove the SHC theory.
   In the Red Dwarf episode Confidence and Paranoia, Lister is informed that a previous mayor of Warsaw spontaneously combusted. He then contracts a mutated form of pneumonia that turns his subconscious thoughts into reality, thus causing the mayor of Warsaw to appear on the ship and then explode.
   Crime fiction novelist Simon Beckett uses an apparent case of SHC as the investigative starting point in his novel Written in Bone, the second novel in the David Hunter series.

Quotes

Further Information

Get more info on 'Spontaneous Human Combustion'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://spontaneous_human_combustion.totallyexplained.com">Spontaneous human combustion Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.