Spontaneous human combustion

Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) is the concept of the combustion of a living (or recently deceased) human body without an apparent external source of ignition. In addition to reported cases, descriptions of the alleged phenomenon appear in literature, and both types have been observed to share common characteristics in terms of circumstances and the remains of the victim.

For combustion not involving the human body, see spontaneous combustion.

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Paranormal

Scientific investigations have attempted to analyze reported instances of SHC and have resulted in hypotheses regarding potential causes and mechanisms, including victim behavior and habits, alcohol consumption and proximity to potential sources of ignition, as well as the behavior of fires that consume melted fats. Natural explanations, as well as unverified natural phenomena, have been proposed to explain reports of SHC. Current scientific consensus is that most, and perhaps all, cases of SHC involve overlooked external sources of ignition.

Overview

"Spontaneous human combustion" refers to the death from a fire originating without an apparent external source of ignition; the fire is believed to start within the body of the victim. This idea, and the term "spontaneous human combustion", were both first proposed in 1746 by Paul Rolli in an article published in the Philosophical Transactions concerning the mysterious death of Countess Cornelia Zangheri Bandi.[1] Writing in The British Medical Journal in 1938, coroner Gavin Thurston describes the phenomenon as having "apparently attracted the attention not only of the medical profession but of the laity one hundred years ago" (referring to a fictional account published in 1834 in the Frederick Marryat cycle).[2] In his 1995 book Ablaze!, Larry E. Arnold wrote that there had been about 200 cited reports of spontaneous human combustion worldwide over a period of around 300 years.[3]

Characteristics

The topic received coverage in the British Medical Journal in 1938. An article by L. A. Parry cited an 1823-published book Medical Jurisprudence,[4] which stated that commonalities among recorded cases of spontaneous human combustion included the following characteristics:

"[...]the recorded cases have these things in common:

  1. the victims are chronic alcoholics;
  2. they are usually elderly females;
  3. the body has not burned spontaneously, but some lighted substance has come into contact with it;
  4. the hands and feet usually fall off;
  5. the fire has caused very little damage to combustible things in contact with the body;
  6. the combustion of the body has left a residue of greasy and fetid ashes, very offensive in odour."[5]

Alcoholism is a common theme in early SHC literary references, in part because some Victorian era physicians and writers believed spontaneous human combustion was the result of alcoholism.[6]

Scientific investigation

An extensive two-year research project, involving thirty historical cases of alleged SHC, was conducted in 1984 by science investigator Joe Nickell and forensic analyst John F. Fischer. Their lengthy, two-part report was published in the journal of the International Association of Arson Investigators,[7]:3–11 as well as part of a book.[8] Nickell has written frequently on the subject,[7][8][9] appeared on television documentaries, conducted additional research, and lectured at the New York State Academy of Fire Science at Montour Falls, New York, as a guest instructor.

Nickell and Fischer's investigation, which looked at cases in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, showed that the burned bodies were close to plausible sources for the ignition: candles, lamps, fireplaces, and so on. Such sources were often omitted from published accounts of these incidents, presumably to deepen the aura of mystery surrounding an apparently "spontaneous" death. The investigations also found that there was a correlation between alleged SHC deaths and the victim's intoxication (or other forms of incapacitation) which could conceivably have caused them to be careless and unable to respond properly to an accident. Where the destruction of the body was not particularly extensive, a primary source of combustible fuel could plausibly have been the victim's clothing or a covering such as a blanket or comforter.

However, where the destruction was extensive, additional fuel sources were involved, such as chair stuffing, floor coverings, the flooring itself, and the like. The investigators described how such materials helped to retain melted fat, which caused more of the body to be burned and destroyed, yielding still more liquified fat, in a cyclic process known as the "wick effect" or the "candle effect".

According to Nickell and Fischer's investigation, nearby objects often remained undamaged because fire tends to burn upward, but burns laterally with some difficulty. The fires in question are relatively small, achieving considerable destruction by the wick effect, and relatively nearby objects may not be close enough to catch fire themselves (much as one can closely approach a modest campfire without burning). As with other mysteries, Nickell and Fischer cautioned against "single, simplistic explanation for all unusual burning deaths" but rather urged investigating "on an individual basis".[8]:169

Neurologist Steven Novella has said that skepticism about spontaneous human combustion is now bleeding over into becoming popular skepticism about spontaneous combustion.[10]

A 2002 study by Angi M. Christensen of the University of Tennessee cremated both healthy and osteoporotic samples of human bone and compared the resulting color changes and fragmentation. The study found that osteoporotic bone samples "consistently displayed more discoloration and a greater degree of fragmentation than healthy ones." The same study found that when human tissue is burned, the resulting flame produces a small amount of heat, indicating that fire is unlikely to spread from burning tissue.[11]

Suggested explanations

Some hypotheses attempt to explain how SHC might occur without an external flame source, while other hypotheses suggest that incidents that might appear as spontaneous combustion did in fact have an external source of ignition – and that the likelihood of spontaneous human combustion without an external ignition source is quite low.[12] Benjamin Radford, science writer and deputy editor of the science magazine Skeptical Inquirer, casts doubt on the plausibility of spontaneous human combustion: "If SHC is a real phenomenon (and not the result of an elderly or infirm person being too close to a flame source), why doesn't it happen more often? There are 5 billion people in the world [ ⁠today in 1987 ⁠], and yet we don't see reports of people bursting into flame while walking down the street, attending football games, or sipping a coffee at a local Starbucks."[13] Paranormal researcher Brian Dunning states that SHC stories "are simply the rare cases where a natural death in isolation has been followed by a slow combustion from some nearby source of ignition." He further suggested that reports of people suddenly aflame should be called "unsolved deaths by fire", stating that an unknown cause did not necessarily imply that the fire lacked an external ignition source.[14]

Natural explanations
  • Almost all postulated cases of SHC involve persons with low mobility due to advanced age or obesity, along with poor health.[14] Victims show a high likelihood of having died in their sleep, or of having been unable to move once they had caught fire.
  • Cigarettes are often seen as the source of fire, as the improper disposal of smoking materials causes one in every four fire deaths in the United States.[15] Natural causes such as heart attacks may lead to the victim dying, subsequently dropping the cigarette, which after a period of smouldering can ignite the victim's clothes.[16]
  • The "wick effect" hypothesis suggests that a small external flame source, such as a burning cigarette, chars the clothing of the victim at a location, splitting the skin and releasing subcutaneous fat, which is in turn absorbed into the burned clothing, acting as a wick. This combustion can continue for as long as the fuel is available. This hypothesis has been successfully tested with pig tissue and is consistent with evidence recovered from cases of human combustion.[17][18] The human body typically has enough stored energy in fat and other chemical stores to fully combust the body; even lean people have several pounds of fat in their tissues. This fat, once heated by the burning clothing, wicks into the clothing much as candle wax (which originally was typically made of animal fat) is drawn into a lit candle wick, providing the fuel needed to keep the wick burning.[19] The protein in the body also burns, but provides less energy than fat, with the water in the body being the main impediment to combustion. However, slow combustion, lasting hours, gives the water time to evaporate slowly. In an enclosed area, such as a house, this moisture will recondense nearby, possibly on windows. Feet don't typically burn because they often have the least fat; hands also have little fat, but may burn if resting on the abdomen, which provides all of the necessary fat for combustion.
  • Scalding can cause burn-like injuries, sometimes leading to death, without setting fire to clothing. Although not applicable in cases where the body is charred and burnt, this has been suggested as a cause in at least one claimed SHC-like event.[20]
  • Brian J. Ford has suggested that ketosis, possibly caused by alcoholism or low-carb dieting, produces acetone, which is highly flammable and could therefore lead to apparently spontaneous combustion.[21][22]
  • SHC can be confused with self-immolation as a form of suicide. In the West, self-immolation accounts for 1% of suicides,[23] while Radford claims in developing countries the figure can be as high as 40%.[24]
  • Sometimes there are reasonable explanations for the deaths, but proponents ignore official autopsies and contradictory evidence, in favor of anecdotal accounts and personal testimonies.[16][20][25]
  • Mast cell researcher Lawrence Afrin, M.D., posits that a rare condition called mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) may be the cause of the phenomenon. In MCAS, mast cells spontaneously release over 200 inflammatory molecules known as mediators, including the substance noradrenaline (norepinephrine). Afrin describes a case report of a man with MCAS who grew ill and appeared to "smoke" in the presence of several witnesses. Afrin writes that the release of large amounts of norepinephrine, or perhaps another mast cell-derived substance, could turn on a regulatory protein called UCP-1 in greater-than-normal amounts. UCP-1 causes adipose oxidization to be released as heat. Adipose tissue is a known repository of mast cells. Under the right circumstances, a sudden flood of norepinephrine released from adipose mast cells could activate the UCP-1 "switch" and cause heat generation in excess of 90 degrees Celsius. Once the adipose tissue were ignited, it would in theory burn itself out, inclusive of bone marrow.[26]
  • British chemist Dr. John Emsley suggests that cases of spontaneous human combustion could be the result of an over production of a pyrophoric liquid, diphosphane, in the gut. He postulates that the self-combustion of diphosphane would also result in the ignition of the hydrogen and methane gasses in the gut, which would explain witnessed cases where blue flames were seen to originate from the abdomen. Methane burns with a pale blue flame.

Alternative theories
  • Larry E. Arnold in his 1995 book Ablaze! proposed a pseudoscientific new subatomic particle, which he called "pyrotron".[3]:99–106[20] Arnold also wrote that the flammability of a human body could be increased by certain circumstances, like increased alcohol in the blood.[3]:84[20] He further proposed that extreme stress could be the trigger that starts many combustions.[3]:163[20] This process may use no external oxygen to spread throughout the body, since it may not be an "oxidation-reduction" reaction; however, no reaction mechanism has been proposed. Researcher Joe Nickell has criticised Arnold's hypotheses as based on selective evidence and argument from ignorance.[20]
  • In his 1976 book Fire From Heaven, UK writer Michael Harrison suggests that SHC is connected to poltergeist activity because, he argues, "the force which activates the 'poltergeist' originates in, and is supplied by, a human being". Within the concluding summary, Harrison writes: "SHC, fatal or non-fatal, belongs to the extensive range of poltergeist phenomena."
  • John Abrahamson suggested that ball lightning could account for spontaneous human combustion. "This is circumstantial only, but the charring of human limbs seen in a number of ball lightning cases are [sic] very suggestive that this mechanism may also have occurred where people have had limbs combusted," says Abrahamson.[27]

Notable examples

On 2 July 1951, Mary Reeser, a 67-year-old woman, was found burned to death in her house after her landlady realised that the house's doorknob was unusually warm. The landlady notified the police, and upon entering the home, they found Reeser's remains completely burned into ash, with only one leg remaining. The chair she was sitting in was also destroyed. During the investigation, detectives found that Reeser's temperature was around 3,500 °F (1,930 °C; 2,200 K), which puzzled the investigators, as almost everything else in the room in which Reeser was found remained intact. Reeser took sleeping pills and was also a smoker. A common theory was that she was smoking a cigarette after taking sleeping pills, and then fell asleep while still holding the burning cigarette, which could have ignited her gown, ultimately leading to her death. Investigators also found that the fire had burned a socket, which stopped a clock at 2:26am, suggesting that Reeser had died at around that time.[28]

Margaret Hogan, an 89-year-old widow who lived alone in a house on Prussia Street, Dublin, Ireland, was found burned almost to the point of complete destruction on 28 March 1970. Plastic flowers on a table in the centre of the room had been reduced to liquid and a television with a melted screen sat 12 feet from the armchair in which the ashen remains were found; otherwise, the surroundings were almost untouched. Her two feet, and both legs from below the knees, were undamaged. A small coal fire had been burning in the grate when a neighbour left the house the previous day; however, no connection between this fire and that in which Mrs. Hogan died could be found. An inquest, held on 3 April 1970, recorded death by burning, with the cause of the fire listed as "unknown".[29]

Henry Thomas, a 73-year-old man, was found burned to death in the living room of his council house on the Rassau estate in Ebbw Vale, South Wales, in 1980. His entire body was incinerated, leaving only his skull and a portion of each leg below the knee. The feet and legs were still clothed in socks and trousers. Half of the chair in which he had been sitting was also destroyed. Police forensic officers decided that the incineration of Thomas was due to the wick effect.[30]

In December 2010, the death of Michael Faherty, a 76-year-old man in County Galway, Ireland, was recorded as "spontaneous combustion" by the coroner. The doctor, Ciaran McLoughlin, made this statement at the inquiry into the death: "This fire was thoroughly investigated and I'm left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion, for which there is no adequate explanation."[31]

Cultural references
  • In the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens, the character Mr. Krook dies of spontaneous combustion at the end of Part X. Dickens researched the details of a number of contemporary accounts of spontaneous human combustion before writing that part of the novel, and, after receiving criticism from a scientist friend suggesting he was perpetuating a "vulgar error", cites some of these cases in Part XI, and again in the preface to the one-volume edition.[32] The death of Mr. Krook has been described as "the most famous case in literature" of spontaneous human combustion.[33]
  • In the comic story "The Glenmutchkin Railway" by William Edmondstoune Aytoun, published in 1845 in Blackwood's Magazine, one of the railway directors, Sir Polloxfen Tremens, is said to have died of spontaneous combustion.[34]
  • In the 1984 mockumentary This Is Spın̈al Tap, about the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap, two of the band's former drummers are said to have died in separate on-stage spontaneous human combustion incidents.[35]
  • In the beginning of the 1998 video game Parasite Eve, an entire audience in Carnegie Hall spontaneously combusts (except for Aya Brea, the protagonist of the game) during an opera presentation as the main actress Melissa Pierce starts to sing.[36]
  • In the twenty-third episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files, called Soft Light, this phenomenon is mentioned.
  • In the eighth episode of the second season of the American action police procedural television series Navy CIS, a case is investigated where the victim at first glance seems to have been killed by spontaneous human combustion.
  • In episode 2 of the second season of TV series Picket Fences, the town's mayor is shown to have been killed by spontaneous combustion.
  • Fire Force's characters's enemies are humans who has this phenomena.
  • In the fourth episode of the first season of the English comedic drama series "Toast of London", Toast decides to finish his book by having the main character spontaneously combust. When bringing it to his literary agent, the laziness of his ending enrages her to spontaneous combustion in front of Toast.
gollark: Does it have touch input?
gollark: Neat.
gollark: Or "jiffy".
gollark: It's obviously "gife".
gollark: Did you know that the S in IOT stands for security?

See also

References
  1. Rolli, Paul (1746). "An Extract, by Mr. Paul Rolli, F.R.S. of an Italian Treatise, written by the Reverend Joseph Bianchini, a Prebend in the City of Verona; upon the Death of the Countess Cornelia Zangári & Bandi, of Ceséna". In Royal Society (ed.). Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London Volume 21. Rare Books Club (published May 2012). p. 447. ISBN 978-1-236-24280-8.
  2. Thurston, Gavin (18 June 1938). "Spontaneous Human Combustion". The British Medical Journal. 1 (4041): 1340. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.4041.1340-a. PMC 2086726.
  3. Arnold, Larry E. (December 1995). Ablaze!: The Mysterious Fires of Spontaneous Human Combustion. M. Evans & Co. ISBN 978-0-87131-789-6.
  4. A Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence, by Dr John Ayrton Paris M.D. and John Samuel Martin Fonblanque Barrister at Law, 3 Vols, London, 1823
  5. Parry, L. A. (4 June 1938). "Spontaneous Combustion". The British Medical Journal. 1 (4039): 1237. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.4039.1237-b. PMC 2086687.
  6. Collins, Nick (23 September 2011). "Spontaneous human combustion: examples from fiction". The Telegraph. Retrieved 10 October 2013.
  7. Nickell, Joe; Fischer, John F. (March 1984). "Spontaneous Human Combustion". The Fire and Arson Investigator. 34 (3).
  8. Nickell, Joe (June 1988). Secrets of the Supernatural. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. pp. 149–157, 161–171. ISBN 978-0-879-75461-7.
  9. Nickell, Joe (15 February 2019). "Spontaneous Human Combustion? Coroner Solves London Mystery". Center for Inquiry. Archived from the original on 15 February 2019.
  10. "Skeptics Guide to the Universe #268". The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe. 1 September 2010. Retrieved 13 June 2016. At 26:38, Novella says: "I think that part of the knee-jerk skepticism is that we hear things like spontaneous human combustion—we know that's total BS—and then when you hear just spontaneous combustion it triggers the same response as if it has anything to do with spontaneous human combustion but it really doesn't. I hear that a lot, too, a lot of people think that anything to do with magnets must be crap because there's so much magnet pseudoscience out there but that doesn't mean that there aren't legitimate uses of magnets in medicine. We can affect brain function with transcranial magnetic stimulation, for example. But again people make that association, that's just a little too simplistic, that magnets equal pseudoscience, that spontaneous combustion equals pseudoscience, but this is perfectly legitimate."
  11. Christensen, Angi M. "Experiments in the Combustibility of the Human Body". Journal of Forensic Sciences. 47 (3): 466–70.
  12. "Skeptic's Dictionary on spontaneous human combustion, Retrieved Oct 20, 2007 "The physical possibilities of spontaneous human combustion are remote."". Skepdic.com. 24 September 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
  13. Radford, Benjamin (26 September 2011). "Irishman died of spontaneous human combustion, coroner claims". MSNBC. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
  14. Dunning, Brian (17 May 2011). "Skeptoid #258: Spontaneous Human Combustion". Skeptoid. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  15. "Cigarettes' Role in Fires Growing". ConsumerAffairs. 9 August 2004. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
  16. Nickell, Joe (March–April 1998). "Fiery tales that spontaneously destruct". Skeptical Inquirer. 22 (2).
  17. Palmiere, C.; Staub, C.; La Harpe, R.; Mangin, P. (2009). "Ignition of a human body by a modest external source: a case report". Forensic Science International. 188 (1–3): e17–19. doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2009.03.027. PMID 19410396.
  18. DeHaan, J. D.; Campbell, S. J.; Nurbakhsh, S. (1999). "Combustion of animal fat and its implications for the consumption of human bodies in fires" (PDF). Science & Justice. 39 (1): 27–38. doi:10.1016/s1355-0306(99)72011-3.
  19. Watson, Stephanie; Mancini, Mark. "How Spontaneous Human Combustion Works". HowStuffWorks. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
  20. Nickell, Joe (November–December 1996). "Not-So-Spontaneous Human Combustion". Skeptical Inquirer. 20 (6). Retrieved 16 August 2010.
  21. Ford, Brian J. (2012). "Solving the Mystery of Spontaneous Human Combustion" (PDF). The Microscope. 60 (2): 63–72. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 May 2013.
  22. Ford, Brian J. (18 August 2012). "The big burn theory" (PDF). New Scientist: 30–31. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  23. Shkrum, M. J.; Johnston, K. A. (January 1992). "Fire and suicide: a three-year study of self-immolation deaths". Journal of Forensic Sciences. 37 (1): 208–221. PMID 1545201.
  24. Tourjée, Diana (5 November 2015). "Why a Woman in Germany Just Spontaneously Combusted". Vice magazine.
  25. Nickell, Joe (1 December 1996). "Spontaneous Human Nonsense". Skeptical Inquirer. 6.4.
  26. Afrin, Lawrence B. (March 2016). Never Bet Against Occam: Mast Cell Activation Disease and the Modern Epidemics of Chronic Illness and Medical Complexity. Bethesda, MD: Sisters Media, LLC. pp. 256–257. ISBN 978-0-9973196-1-3.
  27. Muir, Hazel (20 December 2001). "Ball lightning scientists remain in the dark". New Scientist. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  28. Blizin, Jerry (5 July 1951). "No New Clues In Reeser Death; Debris Sent To Lab". St. Petersburg Times. p. 14.
  29. Ruxton, Dean (4 February 2018). "'Ashes and cinders': A spontaneous combustion on Prussia Street". The Irish Times.
  30. Heymer, John E. (April 1996). The Entrancing Flame. London: Little, Brown & Co. ISBN 978-0-316-87694-0.
  31. Ensor, Josie (23 September 2011). "Irish pensioner 'died of spontaneous human combustion'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
  32. Haight, Gordon S. (June 1955). "Dickens and Lewes on Spontaneous Combustion". Nineteenth-Century Fiction. 10 (1): 53–63. doi:10.2307/3044373. JSTOR 3044373.
  33. Dalrymple, Theodore (8 September 2012). "Burning up". British Medical Journal. 345 (7873): 34. JSTOR 23278432.
  34. Andrew Odlyzko. "Collective hallucinations and inefficient markets: The British Railway Mania of the 1840s" (PDF).
  35. Seeker Media: mysterious-death-ruled-spontaneous-combustion
  36. Agnello, Anthony John (18 December 2015). "Parasite Eve bottles the eerie feeling of not celebrating Christmas". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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