Spontaneous Combustion: Vodka and Cigarettes?

OK everybody, short and sweet.
Is it possible to spontaneously combust after drinking strong alcohol and lighting a cigarette?
Has it ever been suspected in such cases?
From what various documentaries have shown (the debunking norm) it appears the smoldering takes place from outside the body inwards.
It seems more likely that some of these victims smoked in bed after too many drinks, and the ciggie smoldered across the bedding.
Nevertheless, it remains a quite common fear: if one downs two vodkas and lights a ciggie one can burst into flames, or the flame might follow the the vodka into the gaseous tummy, and then: KA BOOM!

As long as you drink it and not dowse yourself in it before smoking , you should be ok lol

reply to post by halfoldman


The only way I can see this being plausible is if it were possible for enough alcohol to seep out of your pores to catch fire. Then again, that's not really spontaneous combustion so much as unintentional suicide.

reply to post by gandalphthegrey

OK, perhaps not so entirely reassuring.
I mean what happens on the outside can surely happen on the inside.
Maybe it will be a freak occurrence, but still, maybe it has happened.

reply to post by halfoldman


I have carefully researched this topic and conducted many thousands of experiments with all sorts spirits, cigerettes and cigars i have tried it every way imaginable. I'm typing this so I reckon you could call this one debunked.

Originally posted by halfoldman
reply to post by gandalphthegrey

 

OK, perhaps not so entirely reassuring.
I mean what happens on the outside can surely happen on the inside.
Maybe it will be a freak occurrence, but still, maybe it has happened.

If you want more reassurance , either quit Vodka or quit smoking lol

I think its due to methane and static electricity. No really...

Fascinating video of SHC (spontaneous human combustion) from Unsolved Mysteries



With the many chemical processes inside us that happen all the time, I'm sure it can happen.

151 if they still make it and a cigar do not mix, nor does a heating pad, match, 100 watt light bulb, flint steel, cigarette, toaster, hair dryer, heat gun, electric heater, or a heat lamp. do not try this at home.

Originally posted by bekod
151 if they still make it and a cigar do not mix, nor does a heating pad, match, 100 watt light bulb, flint steel, cigarette, toaster, hair dryer, heat gun, electric heater, or a heat lamp. do not try this at home.

Everclear, a bean burrito or 2,and dragging your feet on carpet when you walk.. BLAM.

lol i got a visual of that one, new pair of jeans? shorts? new ceiling? or just smoldering socks?

Originally posted by bekod
lol i got a visual of that one, new pair of jeans? shorts? new ceiling? or just smoldering socks?

HEH! Not sure.. some sorta blam though. Ive been to parties in college.. I completely believe in spontaneous human combustion and it comes in MANY forms.


Seriously though, there are so many theories on this.. all the way to cell explosions and internal gas mixtures and nitrogen. Ball lightening has even been discussed. My pet theory is Methane and static electricity though. Not just farts .. though I like to joke.. but som esort of metabolic process disease or malfunction that would cause a build up large enough and concentrated enough to be an adequate fuel source to produce the heat temps needed to cremate a body... or parts of one. Ignition would be pretty simple.. static, cigg, whatever. It satisfied the only factor that we are sure of... that the ignition source was outside of the body. Last time I checked anyway... havent thought about SHC in decades.

Well the people here swear it sometimes happens, and it's not that rare.
However it could be that some of the alcohol they brew up can temporarily blind a person.
A lot of it is perhaps also lighting.

But no, I won't stop my little shots and ciggies.
Living on the edge I guess (ha, ha).
OK it's really tragic, so not good to joke, at least for me (and some people seriously associate it with being bewitched).
But, in one sense it's a quick way to go (well, who knows, but it's the general idea).
There's minimal damage to the room and furniture.
The insurance must pay out for the family.
I mean Japanese people eat Fugu and risk death.
Other people race cars on tracks.

Drinking vodka and smoking cigarettes will not make you spontaneously combust. If it there would be quite a few people that would be dead from this and there would be cases of it heard on the news.
I myself have smoked cigarettes/cigars while drinking vodka, scotch, bourbon and I still appear to be alive.

I was looking for sources on Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC), and read:Mysteries of the Unexplained, Reader's Digest: 1992: pp.80-93.
It begins with a woman in 1673 who was known to be "a heavy drinker of 'strong spirits' to the point of not taking any nourishment for three days" (p.80).
She slept on straw, and in the morning only her fingers and head were found (p.80).
It is certainly not representative of all SHC cases, but the heavy drinking victim was a common trope.
This extended even into literature (pp.88-89), where Dickens , Melville and Zola used "Fiery Combustion" as the dreadful end to a strong drinking villain.
It seems some cases are explained (unwittingly putting a lit pipe into a pocket).
Others are certainly not.
According to Reader's Digest, a 1746 Gentleman's Magazine proposed a convergence of chemical factors with strong alcohol:

...inflamed effluvia of her blood, by juices and fermentations in the stomach, by the many combustible matters which are abundant in living bodies for the uses of life; and finally, by the fiery evaporations which exhale from the settlings of spirit of wine, brandies and other hot liquors in the tunica villosa of the stomach, and other adipose or fat membranes..."

(P.82)

Alcohol is known to be flammable.
I'm not sure how anyone can claim to be 100% certain that it has not contributed to many (perhaps the majority) of SHC cases.

I don't know if it is possible; however, if you add fuel (alcohol) and fire (cigarette/lighter), then it wouldn't be spontaneous.

reply to post by Aggie Man

Yeah, the "spontaneous" is a misnomer that stuck.
The strange thing is, from books in my youth I always thought it was something that started in the 1970s, with color photos.
But it appears the 19th century was almost obsessed with it.
A lot of their words and ideas have changed since then.

reply to post by halfoldman


This could also be caused by the fact that she was soaked in liquor and sleeping on straw, no? I know I've seen farmlands around my area that have massive piles of burning hay which were never set to fire. Itsupposedly combusts from the friction of the bacteria eating away at it rapidly.

Doubt it.. If was true then all my russian friends would have to carry fire extinguishers around for the large quantities of vodka they drink and most smoke as well.. None have combusted yet..

reply to post by knylon90

It appears that external camphor skin treatment (containing alcohol) was considered as a cause of at least one 19th century SHC case (same page and source as above Reader's Digest book quote).
However, that also doesn't completely explain it (or the difference between external and internal alcoholic combustion, except that an external flame could be an easier cause).
However, some also thought that opium could lead to SHC.
This makes me think that some moral fault (alcohol and drug abuse) was attached to the phenomenon.

Interestingly, comedian Richard Pryor is commonly believed to have caught aflame from freebasing crack for several days in 1980. However, the urban legend is false:

But the fire was caused when he poured high-proof rum on his body and lit it with a match in a drug-hazed suicide attempt. He later joked about the experience, but his close family and friends kept an eye on him for the rest of his life.

Source: David Diedendorf: Amazing...But False!. Sterling Press, 2007: p.80.

Spontaneous fires are also connected to poltergeist activity, however none (that I've read) which are fatal.

What is interesting about the Pryor case is that his external alcohol fire did not lead to "spontaneous combustion" (although I'm sure under other circumstances it can leave people horribly disfigured).