Spontaneous Human Combustion?

this is a subject that has always intrigued and baffled me

like how the body is totally burnt up and a small area around it and nothing else

i still think it is one of the great mystery's of this world

15-year-old girl dies of mystery burns

HOWRAH: A 15-year-old girl died after suffering burn injuries under mysterious circumstances at Howrah's Bantra on Tuesday. Police have started a probe.
articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com...

Slovak mystery: woman allegedly consumed by spontaneous human combustion
www.sott.net...

hears videos
with some stories about it

www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...

Great thread. I haven't heard of any recent SHC cases, and the article on the 15 year old girl, as sad as it is, might bring this mystery back into the spotlight. I first remember hearing about SHC on Aurther C. Clarke's Mysteries World when I was 8 and I couldn't believe it.

I hadn't thought about it in years, and then the other day my dog woke me up at 4:00am to go outside. I had left my TV on all night and after I let the dog out a show on NatGeo just started on the topic and totally reminded me of it. I was wondering what happen to it. Seems like alot of people through the 60-80's were just catching on fire then it just stopped. It sparked the mystery again for me.

i read about this when i was about 14 and it too got my interest, being some years older now, i am led to believe it may be caused by some defect in the body building up a chemical and then reacting with certain conditions within the suroundings, never really looked into too much so i dont know for sure but maybe!

Originally posted by sema sema
i read about this when i was about 14 and it too got my interest, being some years older now, i am led to believe it may be caused by some defect in the body building up a chemical and then reacting with certain conditions within the suroundings, never really looked into too much so i dont know for sure but maybe!

I've heard this theory before and it is the most plausible explanation. I never bought the theory that people just feel asleep with a cigarette because I light myself on fire two or three times a week and never burn up like that.

i was a kid my self when i found out about it out of a mystery magazine

ind i just think its quite intresting

I just watched an episode of "Is it Real" on netflix the other day that covered this exact issue. They raised one real interesting point, all of the recorded and documented case with photos and all were of older people that smoked. This seemed to be a very plausible explanation to them all.

reply to post by MKultraVideos

i was a real heavy smoker until recently and i think every duvet and cover pillows and the bed itself all have fag burns in them i even burnt my self on a few occasions but never set myself alight

i think it must be some thing inside the body that starts it

Great topic. Been discussed here before but it always gets better.

I lived near a case. I put it in this thread here, if you wish to read about it.

Spontaneous Human Combustion, Is It A Paranormal Event Or A Real Medical Issue
www.abovetopsecret.com...

by ATS member: paxnatus

I remember a show on this some years ago. The experiemented by trying to replicate the conditions of SHC by burning a (dead) pig. They theorised that the body fat could be acting as a slow wick, building up temperatures high enough to incinerate the body, but if I remember correctly, not only was the pig carcass still there when the heat subsided, albeit burnt to a crisp, but it had caused a lot of additional fire damage around the simulated room that SHC cases don't seem to have.

I need to look out some old mystery magazines on the issue. They had some bizzare photographs of SHC victims that baffled me and experts.

reply to post by LeaderOfProgress


What's weird about the whole thing is that just the immediate body is burned. I can't imagine getting light aflame and not moving or if i had died while smoking I can't imagine the whole room/house going up in flames also. That's the only reason I can't see cigarettes causing it.

I didn't see something I think called the Wick Theory, where if someone catches on fire their body may burn like a candle do to the fat.

And I don't actually think that everyone was a older smoker, I seem to recall an account of a women catching aflame in front of her husband or something. I'll go search up something.

when I was young and in my teens, I was obsessed with the paranormal... I always believed in my own personal theory that SHC cases we're the Devil coming to claim the souls of the damned.

reply to post by Target Earth
i have thought about that myself but the only thing is dont you think

there would be a lot more cases the way the word is going today

i heard quite a theory on this topic
feel free to debunk at will. first was that the government was testing a *silent weapon* during the quiet war.
for those of your who don't know. the quiet war was the period from the start of the cold war until *undefined*.
doing this by building chemicals in the air (by chem trail) and them manipulating the environment around a certain area to record results

now as long a stretch as that is, it has some sense to it.
my friend brought this up about 3 months ago. he stated that "its a man made effect"
i asked "why?" and he told me something that made me think. "there has never been situations of that kind reported before the 1900s" suggesting the increasing rate of technology.

Maybe the victims are just minding their own business, listening to their minds wander...then BAM! They accidentally think up the name of God? That's the only thing I can come up with but the whole chemical build up thing sounds interesting too.

just read all your coments since i last posted and it is true only the body burns for a fraction of time or in some cases explodes, early cases that i looked at showed pictures of just the persons shoes with the feet still in them and burnt fragments all over the room but nothing else had court fire or burn't!

allow me to elaberate, the build of chemical substance.....i.e something highly combustable not magnesium or lithium as these tend to burn rather than explode and would indeed couse fire damage to surrounding area's...my thoughts lead me to potassium witch if in the case that it did build up in the body possibly in the blood stream or lungs maybe then this could indeed react with high concentration of oxygen when the person breaths in heavily. potasium has an explosive effect that is both instantaneous and powerfull enough to blow a human being apart in a split second, not only does it react in oxygen it is very reactive in water which as we know the human body contains a lot of! potassium is found in most foods we eat and is required in our body in small amounts....

the only question to me is how does this substance build up to detonation levels???

p.s there are cases that happened before 1900 and to be honest we didnt have planes back then let alone jet engines to make chem trails so you know!

this is just my personal thoughts, i have not done scientific research as regards this but would be interesting to see if i am right

reply to post by sema sema


The Chemical reaction theory seems to be the most logical explanation of this. Scaring thought though.

I'm inclined to believe that it doesn't happen to people while they are still alive.

I can't believe that there would be any sort of buildup of combustible chemicals in the body that wouldn't adversely effect people. Your body depends on maintaining a relatively stable environment. If you were to suddenly fill up with some sort of accelerant, I don't think you'd be OK.

Hmmm.... How about this scenario.

You've been smoking for years; inhaling this garbage into your body. Slowly, your lungs build up a nice coating of tar. It reaches critical mass and a single burning ember is inhaled with your last cigarette. It ignites the tar that's build up in your lungs and suddenly you've become a living oven. Slowly burning like a charcoal fire for hours until you're left with nothing but ashes.

Or

Maybe you die and the bacteria in your intestines continues to digest things; producing methane. After a while, the cigarette you were smoking when you died ignites the methane and burns your corpse.

I really haven't got a clue. I'm just having fun with the whole idea.

reply to post by digby888


digby888 i've seen two different TV programs about this phenomena and both were worth watching. one show was from the USA; among the cases they covered was a retired Fire Captain. the other show was made and about cases in the UK and included people catching fire (so as to speak) that were injured but not killed.

this subject is also thought to be covered by accident in a well known book (i apologize for not recalling title) which mentions a young boy peering through a keyhole sees a man combust. the story was set in old England. it was a small mention which people became aware of years later.

I've studied this a bit in the past. And to hear it's still going on, or what is suspected to be, makes it still a big medical mystery often not talked discussed. Combustion within the body, possibly by methane gas, or the vid below says bacteria, but sparked by an outside source such as a cigarette. It's chemical and the fire goes out when the body is burnt.

Here's an older BBC video has good info.

yea, after all this does seem more of a topic best described by some medical science reaserch.
i dont think theres anyway to get a definent answer.
unless one of us were to record the persons medical state prior to there quick and (hopefuly painless)
death.