Man killed by spontaneous combustion ?

Posted on Wednesday, 20 February, 2013 | Comment icon

32 comments | News tip by: Still Waters

Image credit: sxc.hu

Officials are puzzled over the mysterious incineration of a 66-year-old man in Sequoyah County.

Police officers were called out to Danny Vanzandt's house after smoke had been seen rising from the windows. What they found was that his body had been almost completely incinerated in what seemed like a long slow fire lasting more than ten hours. Stranger still was the fact that the blaze had been extremely localized and didn't appear to have set fire to anything else in the room.

"The body is burned, incinerated, like I’ve never seen before and it’s some kind of chemical reaction or something the way I can see it," said Sheriff Ron Lockhart. With no alternative explanation forthcoming, spontaneous human combustion is currently being considered as a distinct possibility. "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," said Lockhart.

The Sequoyah County Sheriff’s Office ruled out homicide in the death of a Muldrow man, but has not ruled out spontaneous human combustion following the state medical examiner’s findings a day later.

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Source: 5 News Online

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Recent comments on this story

#23 Posted by Sundew on 21 February, 2013, 0:16

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

#24 Posted by lilmcnessy on 21 February, 2013, 5:50

Held his farts in too long

#25 Posted by Ashiene on 21 February, 2013, 8:44

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

#26 Posted by Rafterman on 21 February, 2013, 14:29

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 wil... [More]

#27 Posted by tipotep on 22 February, 2013, 0:32

I agree with the above , SHC is just a load of BS . There has to be some form of external ignition TiP.

#28 Posted by GirlfromOz on 23 February, 2013, 11:15

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.

#29 Posted by Antilles on 23 February, 2013, 11:31

I knew if I looked long enough I'd find this. 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. Check out my post above.

#30 Posted by Rlyeh on 23 February, 2013, 11:59

What evidence showed they had a chemical imbalance?

#31 Posted by Render on 25 February, 2013, 9:00

More information: http://www.livescience.com/27264-death-spontaneous-combustion.html

#32 Posted by Rafterman on 25 February, 2013, 15:54

Simply not knowing the ignition source does not equal SHC. There was clearly an ignition source that set her dress on fire, it was just never found.

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