Spontaneous human combustion

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Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) is the alleged burning of a person's body without a readily apparent, identifiable external source of ignition. The combustion may result in simple burns and blisters to the skin, smoking, or a complete incineration of the body. The latter is the form most often 'recognized' as SHC. There is much speculation and controversy over SHC. It is not a proven natural occurrence, but many theories have attempted to explain SHC's existence and how it may occur. The two most common explanations offered to account for apparent SHC are the non-spontaneous "wick effect" fire, and the rare discharge called "static flash fires". Although physically it can be shown that the human body contains enough energy stored in the form of fat and other tissues to consume it completely, in normal circumstances bodies will not sustain a flame on their own.

Contents

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Alleged Characteristics

There are many characteristics that together distinguish alleged SHC from other forms of fire.

Indeed, it is a combination of most or all of the following factors in a fire death that leads to allegations of SHC in the first place.

  • The fire seems to have been generated spontaneously without any observable source of ignition.
  • Fire damage is usually localized to the body of the victim. Furniture and appliances near the victim are usually left untouched. Little or no damage is done within the vicinity of the victim. However, this may be an artifact of the sampling process, since it is possible that in other cases, the fire spreads and causes major destruction of surroundings (especially domestic). This is discussed below.
  • The body of the victim is usually more severely burned than in a normal house fire. The burns are, however, not distributed evenly across the body. The entire torso and arms of the victim are reduced to ashes, while the head sometimes survives as a bare skull and the lower extremities of the victims -- the lower legs -- are typically left intact.
  • The majority of the cases of alleged SHC have occurred indoors. Again, this may be an artifact of the sampling process.
  • The temperature of incineration in cases of alleged SHC is apparently much higher than temperatures achieved in commercial fuel-driven crematoria. This contrast is examined below.
  • Due to the high temperature yet localized nature of the fire, hot air exposure can damage objects high above the fire.
  • In the overwhelming majority of supposed cases, the victim is elderly.
  • Eyewitnesses to the actual combustion process are rare, tending to create suspicion or even confusion about alleged cases of SHC. However --
  • -- It is conjectured (by Heymer) that the recurring circumstance of aloneness, or actual loneliness in alleged SHC victims may be significant. The reason for the rarity of eyewitnesses may, in his view, be precisely because SHC happens to people when they are alone.
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Some alleged SHC fatalities

This list is not intended to be taken as comprehensive.

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Some survivors of alleged SHC

A number of persons have reported serious burns that injured their bodies with no apparent cause.

If this is not the alleged phenomenon known as SHC, it would appear to be a very closely-related occurrence.

This list is not intended to be taken as comprehensive.

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SHC historical controversy

Template:Main The idea that a human body can burst into flames without an external source of combustion is not accepted by mainstream science, although some individual scientists believe it is possible. This is not a new debate, but one that has been conducted over the last several centuries, and is still ongoing.

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Hypotheses

At the present day, opinion on SHC remains divided. As with any apparently anomalous phenomenon, there are a number of theories that attempt to explain how SHC happens. These fall broadly into two camps, which might be called the misidentification theorists and the SHC theorists.

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General misidentification hypothesis

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Spontaneous human combustion conjectures

Adherents to SHC conjectures hold that the cause of SHC is none of the above, but that it is a discrete and genuine phenomenon in which the flesh of the human body catches fire without any external cause.

The field of SHC theories divides into two camps: The supernaturalists and the non-supernaturalists.

The supernaturalists believe that the cause of SHC is almost certainly beyond human knowledge forever. This faction puts forward various conjectures that include poltergeists, divine wrath, etc, which are not considered separately here.

The non-supernaturalists believe that SHC either is knowable or will be knowable.

There is little or no general agreement between those advocating such SHC conjectures. Moreover, there is little agreement between the SHC non-supernaturalists and the SHC skeptics.

Brief discussions of some of these advocates follow:

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John E Heymer and 'The Entrancing Flame'

Described by Joe Nickell as an "English coal-miner-turned-constable,"[1], John E Heymer wrote a 1996 book entitled The Entrancing Flame.

The title is derived from one deductive conclusion that he has reached from examining many cases, namely that SHC victims are lonely people who fall into a trance immediately prior to their incineration.

Heymer suggests that a psychosomatic process in such emotionally-distressed people can trigger off a chain reaction by freeing hydrogen and oxygen within the body and setting off a chain reaction of mitochondrial explosions. Heymer's theories have won little support. They have also generated misunderstanding: Ian Simmons, in a review of The Entrancing Flame, criticised Heymer thus: "He seems to be under the illusion that [hydrogen and oxygen] exist as gases in the [mitochondrial] cell and are thus vulnerable to ignition, which is, in fact, not the case."Template:Ref

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The Wick Theory

There is one theory that suggests that spontaneous human combustion does not originate from inside human flesh. This theory, the wick theory says that due to the fact that a large majority of the alleged victims of SHC were smokers, that perhaps they were ignited from outside the body by a cigarette butt while the victim was unaware. The theory goes on to say that once the person had fallen asleep, the cigarette butt ignited the fatty human tissue which would burn like an inside out wick. This explains why the legs and head would remain intact, which in most cases they do. The head and legs have little fat, while the torso does. The fire would burn like an inside out candle, until the fatty fuel was burned out, and then would go out. This theory explains many elements that appear in most cases of alleged SHC.

There is also another situation that could be responsible for many of the cases. In most of the alleged cases, the victim was over the age of sixty. It has been hypothesized the victim died of something such as a heart attack. Next, a lit cigarette fell onto the victims body, and the same set of events as explained before occur. This situation would explain the victims helplessness in each of the cases, as it would take a little while for a human to burn in this manner.

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Quotes

  • "There's one mystery I'm asked about more than any other: spontaneous human combustion. Some cases seem to defy explanation, and leave me with a creepy and very unscientific feeling. If there's anything more to SHC, I simply don't want to know." — Arthur C. Clarke (1994)
  • "The opinion that a man can burn of himself is not founded on a knowledge of the circumstances of the death, but on the reverse of knowledge - on complete ignorance of all the causes or conditions which preceded the accident and caused it." — Justus von Liebig (1855)
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Notes

  • Template:Note Beard, Alan and Drysdale, Dougal, Unit of Fire Safety Engineering, University of Edinburgh (1986): Spontaneous Human Combustion: More Open- Minded Research Is the Answer. In Fire magazine, May 1986
  • Template:Note Gee, Professor David (1965): A Case of Spontaneous Human Combustion. In Medicine, Science and the Law (vol 5, 1965)
  • Template:Note Halliday, D.J.X. (1986): Human Combustion. Personal communication in New Scientist, p. 63, issue dated May 29 1986.
  • Template:Note Heymer, John (1986); A Case of Spontaneous Human Combustion? In New Scientist, p. 70, issue dated May 15 1986.
  • Template:Note Heymer, John E (1996): The Entrancing Flame, pp202-3, London, Little, Brown, ISBN 0-316-87694-1;
  • Template:Note Heymer, op cit, pp204.
  • Template:Note Heymer, op cit, pp133-4
  • Template:Note Heymer, op cit, pp143-4
  • Template:Note Lewes, George Henry (1861): Spontaneous Human Combustion. In Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, issue dated April 1861
  • Template:Note Ogston, Alexander (1870) On Spontaneous Combustion. In 'Original Communications', the British and Foreign Medical-Chichurgical Review, vol 95, January 1870.
  • Template:Note Simmons, Ian (1996). All Fired up With Spontaneity. In Fortean Times, p 57, issue number 90 (September 1996).
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See also

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External links

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