Human Spontaneous Combustion : Paranormal or Natural explanation ?

The Human Spontaneous combustion is really really bizzare
many cases are still unexplained to this day
most of them just cannot be explained by any sciences

First official reported case was 300 yrs ago
200 more were officialy reported (the unexplained ones)
probably a lot more

After many coroners analysis
they all agree that the fire came from the body itself
burning at a very high temperature
transforming the bones into ashes

Most cases reveal that the combustion were controlled to the body only
all plastic things surrounding the bed melted a little bit
but the fire didnt spread like it normaly do in a house

The victims are so burned that they look like cremated .. bones are ashes
but the feets still remain in most cases

The spontaneous combustion of people (i.e. death from a fire originating within the victim's body without a direct external cause) is a theorised explanation for a number of unexplained cases, some of which are well-documented and many of which are not. The more convincing cases share the following characteristics:

*The body is completely or almost completely incinerated, while nearby furniture that should normally have been damaged under such temperatures remains intact.

*Damage is limited to the victim's clothing, to the area of the floor or furniture on which he or she died, and to the ceiling above the corpse.

*The torso is the focus of the fire, and if remains are found these are of the extremities, such as the feet.

*There are no traces of fire accelerant, and the fire does not have an evident external cause.

*The victim is typically alone at the time of death, and is thought to have been alive when the fire started, despite showing little sign of having struggled

Wiki Link

any chimical explanation ??
anything they ate ??

Did a phoenix demon touched them ?
Did they made a pact with a cross road demon 10 yrs ago ?

there is so many questions regarding these strange cases

maybe its time to look more into a paranormal explanations
since science wasnt able to resolve it in 300 yrs

anythough? ..
Do you think some mythical creature like the pheonix is at fault here ?
or a demon from hell collected some poor soul by burning their body with the fire of hell ?

reply to post by Ben81

The court was told that no trace of an accelerant had been found and there had been nothing to suggest foul play. The court heard Mr Faherty had been found lying on his back with his head closest to an open fireplace. The fire had been confined to the sitting room. The only damage was to the body, which was totally burnt, the ceiling above him and the floor underneath him. Dr McLoughlin said he had consulted medical textbooks and carried out other research in an attempt to find an explanation. He said Professor Bernard Knight, in his book on forensic pathology, had written about spontaneous combustion and noted that such reported cases were almost always near an open fireplace or chimney.

'First Irish case' of death by spontaneous combustion

....noted that such reported cases were almost always near an open fireplace or chimney.That's telling.

S&F

This topic, and many others is what got me into the whole "paranormal" thing many many moons ago. SHC, has always been very facinating.

It is just rather strange, that there is allmost, or very little new cases regarding this phenomenon.

Thanks for keeping it old skool mate, about time for a nice SHC thread again.

vvv

I'm fairly sure the person would have to be completely unconscious while it takes place, the body would burn very slowly and the people never seem to have struggled or sought help in any way. A possible factor is "Brown Fat", which is a type of fat turned directly in to heat by babies, but adults can supposedly have it too. I don't know how it would work but it's just an idea, the whole thing doesn't really make sense though. The human body is about 60% water, so it's hard to believe it would burn in this way, I think it would have to be a very, very slow burn.

The most "out there" theory i have come across involves the mitochondria in our cells.

During energy production heat is given off. The mitochondria, inside the cells, basically starts to overheat, and burst into "flame", this causes a massive chain reaction, causing all the cells to explode. Human fat is used as the propellant, and thus the body burns rather intense, like a candle.

vvv

An interesting topic. I vote natural/chemical but let's put it to rest by assigning it to Myth Busters!

Originally posted by VreemdeVlieendeVoorwep
The most "out there" theory i have come across involves the mitochondria in our cells.

During energy production heat is given off. The mitochondria, inside the cells, basically starts to overheat, and burst into "flame", this causes a massive chain reaction, causing all the cells to explode. Human fat is used as the propellant, and thus the body burns rather intense, like a candle.

vvv

I'm pretty sure that's what's called "Brown fat". Animals use it in hibernation and human babies use it too.
It's also present in small amount in adult humans.

Originally posted by VreemdeVlieendeVoorwep
This topic, and many others is what got me into the whole "paranormal" thing many many moons ago. SHC, has always been very facinating.

It is just rather strange, that there is allmost, or very little new cases regarding this phenomenon.

Thanks for keeping it old skool mate, about time for a nice SHC thread again.

vvv

I wanted to insert many pictures .. changed my mind
no one wants to see burned corpses on ATS
we are not Liveleak

Been a very long time since i have see recent info on the SHC

Most recent cases from Wiki:
George I. Mott (United States, 1986)
Michael Faherty (Ireland, 2010)
Elizabeth McLaughlin (Ireland, 2010)

24 yrs between George and Michael ...
it seems you got better chance of being strike by a meteor
then be burned in a strange Spontaneous combustion

if its unnatural ....
no serial killer can live 300 yrs

if its natural .. can it be "fart" related ?
static electricity ? in the bed ??

Originally posted by sonnny1
reply to post by Ben81

 

The court was told that no trace of an accelerant had been found and there had been nothing to suggest foul play. The court heard Mr Faherty had been found lying on his back with his head closest to an open fireplace. The fire had been confined to the sitting room. The only damage was to the body, which was totally burnt, the ceiling above him and the floor underneath him. Dr McLoughlin said he had consulted medical textbooks and carried out other research in an attempt to find an explanation. He said Professor Bernard Knight, in his book on forensic pathology, had written about spontaneous combustion and noted that such reported cases were almost always near an open fireplace or chimney.

'First Irish case' of death by spontaneous combustion

....noted that such reported cases were almost always near an open fireplace or chimney.That's telling.

S&F

Not really. An academic forensic pathologist predisposed to clutching at any circumstance he could find that might be relevant to an explanation would be expected to see significance in the victim being near a fire. But this presupposes that a cinder from the fire caused the SHC. This is ridiculous because, even if clothing caught fire, the temperature that would be needed to cause the reported degree of incineration far exceeds that reached by burning clothes. Therefore, the fact (if, indeed, it was true) that SHC victims are often found near fires is totally irrelevant if nothing from the fire could have been hot enough to cause the extreme degree of combustion. It merely reflects the likelihood that people tend to sit near fires!

The degree of destruction of a body - plus the fact that very little in the immediate neighbourhood is burnt, despite the enormous temperatures present a few feet away in the burning body - has been given no satisfactory scientific explanation.

This topic has spooked me since I was a kid watching Unsolved Mysteries.

There were a few shows on SHC. It always freaked me out. The two I remember were, one where a husband and wife were in the kitchen and the wife (if I remember correctly) just started smoking from her body. The other one was an elderly lady who died in her bed and only her and the parts immediately around her bed are burnt. It was a really creepy picture. A few of the ones I have seen they try and say cigarettes caused the fire and there is no way a cigarette will do that kind of burning...no way, esp burning bone to ash!

I don't know what this is but I tend to think it might be something internal in the body. I'm not sure what I think it is internally but I think it could be chemicals in the body?

reply to post by SpearMint


there has been cases where the person's arms burst into flames in front of witnesses .
so no the victem does not need to be asleep at the time of combustion

Originally posted by mblahnikluver

I don't know what this is but I tend to think it might be something internal in the body. I'm not sure what I think it is internally but I think it could be chemicals in the body?

That is merely a statement of faith because no such chemical or chemicals inside the human body have ever been demonstrated to be a viable cause - if it had, SHC would not persist as a scientific mystery. The scientific rationale seems to be: "if no scientific explanation seems to work, invent a fiction without an ounce of evidence to support it so that the phenomenon can be brushed away under the carpet." The problem is: the intellectual deception perpetuated by forensic experts, police, etc continues to be exposed by cases of SHC. Like UFOs, the phenomenon does not go away and no amount of ad hoc explanation can gloss over it.

i thought they had already solved this with the "human candle" effect or "wick effect".

they were said to have died from smoke inhalation or something like then caught fire as being too close to the hearth (spelling? lol) when the body continues to burn and the fat melts into the clothing etc.. it is said to behave like a wick from a candle and reach very high tempretures... if the feet were the foot of the candle.. .then that explains why there are a few cases where only the feet remained lol.

ill have to find some links on google hehe i used to find this fascinating but ive bought into the above theory for now

I recall one cae where firefighters arrived at the scene while the body was till burning, and they saw blue flames coming from the body. Hydrogen burns blue .
Some body parts usually survive with minimal damage, usually the extremities, but this may not be so anomalous:- I was watching a Yesterday documentary about a tank battle in northern France in 1944 where a veteran told how his tank was hit and caught fire. the driver had been killed, and when he returned to the tank he found the driver incinerated yet his feet remained unburned. They had survived a fire of gallons of fuel in a tank - a metal box - which you might expect to be the sort of environment in which a body would be completely reduced to ash.

I've read a few theories myself...one involves static electricity.

Other theories speculate that the fire begins as a result of a buildup of static electricity inside the body or from an external geomagnetic force exerted on the body

Or the cell theory.

A self-proclaimed expert on spontaneous human combustion, Larry Arnold, has suggested that the phenomenon is the work of a new subatomic particle called a pyroton, which he says interacts with cells to create a mini-explosion.

This also gives some explanation as to why a body is able to burn so easily if this happens.

A possible explanation is the wick effect, which proposes that the body, when lit by a cigarette, smoldering ember or other heat source, acts much like an inside-out candle. A candle is composed of a wick on the inside surrounded by a wax made of flammable fatty acids. The wax ignites the wick and keeps it burning. In the human body, the body fat acts as the flammable substance, and the victim's clothing or hair acts as the wick. As the fat melts from the heat, it soaks into the clothing and acts as a wax-like substance to keep the wick burning slowly. Scientists say this is why victims' bodies are destroyed yet their surroundings are barely burned.

However most cases of combustion people are found to have fallen asleep with a lit cigarette or have been found to be under the influence of drinking. So this leads me to think it doesn't just happen out of nowhere, maybe in some cases it does.

Most of the information I found here if your curious to look.

askville.amazon.com...

I have always thought that maybe a concentrated beam of energy from space - yet unidentified - was responsible for igniting something within the human anatomy.

At first I thought Gamma Rays, but those would likely incinerate everything else.

Still a puzzling mystery.

reply to post by Ben81


Interesting topic. I remember vividly a photograph of an elderly lady who had been 'murdered'. I saw the photograh when I was at the (UK) Metropolitan Police headquarters back in the 1960s.

I still, as I said, remember that image and it was just as described. Only the hands, feet and head were left. The body was ash but the bedclothes outside the area of the 'burn' and areas beyond the bed were untouched. No explanation was given at the time as to how this 'murder' could have been performed.

I have personally seen the results of this. After investigation, there was no sign of any external combustion source. The burn pattern was unbelievably focused.

I am going with internal causes for most of these that are declared spontaneous combustion cases.

Originally posted by Nite_wing
I have personally seen the results of this. After investigation, there was no sign of any external combustion source. The burn pattern was unbelievably focused.

I am going with internal causes for most of these that are declared spontaneous combustion cases.

I remember a movie where water altered with a toxic timebomb for terrorist attack
the altered water mixed with the stomach acid .. the person who drinked it
would explode after 30 minutes

could someone from the past discovered a formula that could make someone burn so bad
the cops who would investigate the crime scene .. would be forever

Its the most plausible answer that i have for the HSC
it would be the perfect way to assasinate someone

Now lets find the 200 victims of SHC
what do they have in commun ? need to find a patern ..
would the corupted governemental elites have such ultra secret formula ?

hope fluoride is not an ingredient ..

Another question that probably needs to be asked is whether there are any non-human cases of spontaneous combustion.

I don't recall seeing anything like this being reported in non-human animals (or plants for that matter). I know there is mention of seemingly 'spontaneous' forest fires, but I'm not sure those count.

As for the mitochondria explanation, has anyone been able to induce mitochondria to combust and set other adjacent cells on fire in a controlled laboratory environment?

Just thinking...