Sheriff: Man Who Died In Fire May Have Spontaneously Combusted

It's intriguing to me that a sheriff would be so quick to come to the conclusion that a man spontaneously combusted. I remember as a teenager reading books in our school library about the phenomenon. There seems to be a few hundred case a year, but I'm still not sure I buy it. What say you?

KFSM reports

Sequoyah County authorities say a man who died in a fire at his home may have spontaneously combusted.

Danny Vanzandt, 66, died in the blaze on Monday.

Sequoyah County Sheriff Ron Lockhart says several neighbors entered the home when they saw smoke and assumed trash had caught fire. Then they realized a person was burning.

Lockhart said the remains were in the kitchen and there was no other damage in the home. The sheriff says there was no apparent source of the fire.

“This is a case that I’ve never seen before,” Lockhart told KFSM-TV.

Authorities say the man had a history of heavy drinking and smoking.

No cause of the fire has been determined and Lockhart says spontaneous combustion has not been ruled out.

“I think there’s only about 200 cases worldwide, and I’m not saying this happened. I’m just saying that we haven’t ruled it out,” Lockhart told KFSM.

The body was sent to the state Medical Examiner’s Office in Tulsa for an autopsy.
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probably he was a vampire and forgot to close the shades in the kitchen before the sun came up

Haha. It could happen.

I'm thinking if he is a heavy drinker, he passed out at the table and his lit cigarette ignited the whiskey he spilled on his clothes.

Hasn't SHC long been debunked as being an urban myth ?

I remeber some TV series where they would take a pig cadaver and stick cotton onto it and light it and the fat and cotton would function like a candle and burn it all up.

Always found this topic to be rather interesting, especially because of the numerous reports from the 60ies and 70ies.

Originally posted by jtrenthacker
It's intriguing to me that a sheriff would be so quick to come to the conclusion that a man spontaneously combusted. I remember as a teenager reading books in our school library about the phenomenon. There seems to be a few hundred case a year, but I'm still not sure I buy it. What say you?

It seems to be an observed phenomenon. My former bro-in-law figured it was the severest form of instant kharma...a true act of devine retribution.

Beats me, though. I toss it in to my thus-far unexplained Unified Weirdness Theory and blame it on quantum physics.

Here are some of the 'natural' explanations I have found which seem plausible. It seems that at least one or more of the scenarios below could have contributed to this man 'spontaneously combusting'.

Almost all cases of SHC involve persons with low mobility, due to advanced age or obesity, along with poor health. Victims show a high likelihood of dying in their sleep, or of being unable to move once they had caught fire. (Skeptoid.com)

Cigarettes are often seen as the source of fire, as dropped cigarettes are the leading cause of house fires in the USA.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. (SkepticalEnquirer.com)

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 animal tissue (pig) and is consistent with evidence recovered from cases of human combustion. 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 typically was originally made of animal fat) wicks into a lit candle wick to provide the fuel needed to keep the wick burning. (Howstuffworks.com)

Scalding can cause burn-like injuries, including 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.

Brian J. Ford has convincingly shown that ketosis, possibly caused by alcoholism or low-carb dieting, produces acetone, which is highly flammable and could therefore lead to apparently spontaneous combustion.

Originally posted by jtrenthacker
Haha. It could happen.

No it couldn't.

I live in Sequoyah County and we actually had a church member call my hubby(who is the pastor) last night about this man passing. We weren't told anything about SHC.

I will see what else I can find out about all this and share what I can.

~OkieDokie

Originally posted by jtrenthacker
Here are some of the 'natural' explanations I have found which seem plausible. It seems that at least one or more of the scenarios below could have contributed to this man 'spontaneously combusting'.

Ahhh...I prefer 'Wrath of God '(or Gods). When science fails you...embrace the weird! (but don't quote me on that, eh?)

.
.This hypothesis has been successfully tested with animal tissue (pig) .
.

Not on any live pig, and not on any live human. Not possible.