32 replies to this topic

[Lava_Lady]

Weird... I recall another common trait amongst the victims its alcoholism, not all but a lot.  And oddly, I just read about a young girl in the hospital that spontaneously ignited but the investigators think hand sanitizer was the culprit.  

http://abclocal.go.c...orld&id=8999734

She survived and is definitely not an alcoholic...

[minera]

We have to remember that our bodies are made of different chemicals and minerals. Who really knows what happened. Maybe the coroner can shed some light on it. If the body was a slow burn at a temperature to burn the body to a crisp the surrounding area should have been affected by the heat. The temperature would have to be as hot as a crematorium to burn his body the way it did. It is creepy to say the least but not the first time I heard about it. Science should be focusing on similar occurances as we barely understand our own planet yet are more concerned in space exploration and looking for planets to colonize. Our own planet holds a lot of mysteries.

[FlyingAngel]

I read somewhere that it's because of fat or some kind of silicon left after a surgery

[Sweetpumper]

Coffey, on 20 February 2013 - 04:48 PM, said:

Oh wow, i never knew there was survivers of it. I need to look into that. Thanks.

I haven't either.  Let us know what you find!

[pallidin]

Google survivors of spontaneous human combustion and you will find that info. I just did.

[the L]

Coffey, on 20 February 2013 - 04:48 PM, said:

Oh wow, i never knew there was survivers of it. I need to look into that. Thanks.

Its my pleasure.

Sweetpumper, on 20 February 2013 - 07:05 PM, said:

I haven't either.  Let us know what you find!

There is first time for everything.

[CRIPTIC CHAMELEON]

Hmm interesting I have read about this phenomena on several occasions before.

[Andromedan Starseed 333]

its more than possible people burning up all the sudden.anything is possible also strange things things happen in life that we can't explain or science especially.what causes people do burn up like that I'm not sure but neither does science people.that sucks though and poor guy maybe its something in the body that caused it something really extreme and extremely high and unbalanced like electrical signals or chemical reaction

[Sundew]

If caffeine is the accelerant, I'm done for......

[lilmcnessy]

Held his farts in too long

[Ashiene]

Maybe someone burned him to death elsewhere and dumped his body in his home to make it seem as if SHC had occured.

[Rafterman]

But does the phenomenon exist at all?  I agree with Brian Dunning that it doesn't.

People catching on fire is not especially uncommon. It happens all the time. The only thing differentiating the cases classified as SHC is that no source of ignition was found; the fires are said to have been spontaneous. Other than that, there's nothing especially remarkable about them. The fires burned in a familiar manner, and the injuries are what would be expected.

Structure fires or brush fires sometimes go unsolved as well, but I think you'll have a hard time finding a fire inspector who will invent the term "spontaneous structure combustion" as if the lack of a determined cause means there wasn't one. Spontaneous Human Combustion of the Second Kind should not be allowed to exist as a category; instead we should call them what they are: Unsolved deaths by fire. Similarly, SHC of the First Kind has never been found to be spontaneous either. Those are simply the rare cases where a natural death in isolation has been followed by a slow combustion from some nearby source of ignition.

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript here:

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4258

[tipotep]

Rafterman, on 21 February 2013 - 02:29 PM, said:

But does the phenomenon exist at all?  I agree with Brian Dunning that it doesn't.

People catching on fire is not especially uncommon. It happens all the time. The only thing differentiating the cases classified as SHC is that no source of ignition was found; the fires are said to have been spontaneous. Other than that, there's nothing especially remarkable about them. The fires burned in a familiar manner, and the injuries are what would be expected.

Structure fires or brush fires sometimes go unsolved as well, but I think you'll have a hard time finding a fire inspector who will invent the term "spontaneous structure combustion" as if the lack of a determined cause means there wasn't one. Spontaneous Human Combustion of the Second Kind should not be allowed to exist as a category; instead we should call them what they are: Unsolved deaths by fire. Similarly, SHC of the First Kind has never been found to be spontaneous either. Those are simply the rare cases where a natural death in isolation has been followed by a slow combustion from some nearby source of ignition.

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript here:

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4258

I agree with the above , SHC is just a load of BS .

There has to be some form of external ignition

TiP.

[GirlfromOz]

Spontaneous combustion.Now lets look at why this person had an untimely death.A chemical imbalance.When the body has an accumulation of combustive materials/gases then,when the timing is right,a fireworks of these compounds ignites!A simple explanation but it is not as simple as that.

[Antilles]

I knew if I looked long enough I'd find this.

http://science.howst...nomena/shc2.htm

In 1938, a 22 year old woman named Phyllis Newcombe was leaving a dance at the Shire Hall in Chelmsford, England.  As she descended the staircase of the hall, her dress suddenly caught fire with no apparent cause. She ran back into the ballroom, where she collapsed. Several people rushed to her aid, but she later died in the hospital. Although the theory was that Newcombe's dress had been ignited by a cigarette or a lit match thrown from the stairwell, no evidence of either was ever found.

tipotep, on 22 February 2013 - 12:32 AM, said:

I agree with the above , SHC is just a load of BS .

There has to be some form of external ignition

TiP.

Check out my post above.