User:Nmillerche/sandbox/Spontaneous human combustion

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Not to be confused with spontaneous combustion.

Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) describes reported cases of the burning of a living (or very recently deceased) human body without an apparent external source of ignition. In addition to reported cases, examples of SHC appear in literature and both types have been observed to share common characteristics regarding circumstances and remains of the victim.

Forensic investigations have attempted to analyze reported instances of SHC and have resulted in hypotheses regarding potential causes and mechanisms, including victim behavior and habits, alcohol consumption, and proximity to potential sources of ignition, as well as the behavior of fire consuming melted fats. Natural explanations, as well as unverified natural phenomena have been proposed to explain SHC reports.

Overview

"Spontaneous human combustion" refers to the death from a fire originating without an apparent external source of ignition. Writing in the British Medical Journal, Gavin Thurston describes the phenomena as having "attracted the attention not only of the medical profession but of the laity" as early as 1834 (more than one hundred years prior to Thurston's 1938 article). In his 1995 book Ablaze!, Larry E. Arnold wrote that there had been about 200 cited reports of spontaneous human combustion worldwide over a period of around 300 years.

Characteristics

The topic received coverage in the British Medical Journal in 1938. An article by L. A. Parry cited an 1823-published paper, "Medical Jurisprudence," which stated that commonalities among recorded cases of spontaneous human combustion included the following characteristics:

"[...]the recorded cases have these things in common:

1. the victims are chronic alcoholics;
2. usually elderly females;
3. the body has not burned spontaneously, but some lighted substance has come into contact with it;
4. the hands and feet usually escape;
5. the fire has caused very little damage to combustible things in contact with the body;
6. the combustion of the body has left a residue of greasy and fetid ashes, very offensive in odour."

Alcoholism is a common theme in early SHC literary references, in part because some Victorian era physicians and writers believed spontaneous human combustion was the result of alcoholism.

Forensic investigation

An extensive two-year research project, involving thirty historical cases of alleged SHC, was conducted in 1984 by science investigator Joe Nickell and forensic analyst John F. Fischer. Their lengthy, two-part report was published in the journal of the International Association of Arson Investigators, as well as part of a book. Nickell has written frequently on the subject, appeared on television documentaries, conducted additional research, and lectured at the New York State Academy of Fire Science at Montour Falls, NY, as a guest instructor.

Nickell and Fischer's investigation, which looked at cases in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, showed that, the burned bodies were near plausible sources for the ignition: candles, lamps, fireplaces, and so on. Sometimes these sources were left out of popular accounts of the alleged phenomenon while they were hyped as mysterious. The investigations also found that there was a correlation between alleged SHC deaths and victim's drunkenness or other incapacitation that could have caused them to be careless with fire and less able to respond properly to an accident. Where the destruction of the body was not extensive, the significant fuel source was the victim's clothing.

However, where the destruction was extensive, additional fuel sources were involved, such as chair stuffing, floor coverings, the flooring itself, and the like. The investigators described how such materials helped retain melted fat to burn and destroy more of the body, yielding still more liquified fat, in a cyclic process known as the "wick effect" (or "candle effect").

According to Nickell and Fischer's investigation, nearby objects often went undamaged because fire tends to burn upward, and it burns laterally with some difficulty. The fires in question are relatively small, achieving considerable destruction by the wick effect, and relatively nearby objects may not be close enough to catch fire themselves (much as one can get rather close to a modest campfire without burning). As with other mysteries, Nickell and Fischer cautioned against "single, simplistic explanation for all unusual burning deaths" but rather urged investigating "on an individual basis."

Suggested explanations

Some hypotheses attempt to explain how SHC might occur without an external flame source, while other hypotheses suggest incidents that might appear as spontaneous combustion actually had an external source of ignition – and that the likelihood of spontaneous human combustion without an external ignition source is quite low. Benjamin Radford, science writer and deputy editor of the science magazine Skeptical Inquirer, casts doubt on the plausibility of spontaneous human combustion, "If SHC is a real phenomenon (and not the result of an elderly or infirm person being too close to a flame source), why doesn’t it happen more often? There are 6 billion people in the world, and yet we don’t see reports of people bursting into flame while walking down the street, attending football games, or sipping a coffee at a local Starbucks." Paranormal researcher Brian Dunning states that SHC stories "are simply the rare cases where a natural death in isolation has been followed by a slow combustion from some nearby source of ignition." He further suggested that reports of people suddenly aflame should be called "Unsolved deaths by fire," stating that the cause being unknown did not necessarily infer that it had not resulted from an external ignition source.

Natural explanations

• 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 having died in their sleep, or of being unable to move once they had caught fire.
• Cigarettes are often seen as the source of fire, as the improper disposal of smoking materials causes one of every four fire deaths 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.
• 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.
• 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 suggested that ketosis, possibly caused by alcoholism or low-carb dieting, produces acetone, which is highly flammable and could therefore lead to apparently spontaneous combustion.
• Sometimes there are reasonable explanations for the deaths, but proponents ignore official autopsies and contradictory evidence, in favor of anecdotal accounts and personal testimonies.

Unverified natural phenomena

• Larry E. Arnold in his 1995 book Ablaze! proposed a pseudoscientific new subatomic particle, which he called "pyrotron". Arnold also wrote that the flammability of a human body could be increased by certain circumstances, like increased alcohol in the blood. He also wrote that extreme stress could be the trigger that starts many combustions. This process may use no external oxygen to spread throughout the body, since it may not be an "oxidation-reduction" reaction, however, no reaction mechanism has been proposed. Researcher Joe Nickell has criticized Arnold's hypotheses as based on selective evidence and argument from ignorance.

Notable examples

Henry Thomas, a 73-year-old man, was found burned to death in the living room of his council house on the Rassau council estate in Ebbw Vale, south Wales, in 1980. His entire body was incinerated, leaving only his skull and a portion of each leg below the knee. The feet and legs were still clothed in socks and trousers. Half of the chair in which he had been sitting was also destroyed. Police forensic officers decided that the incineration of Thomas was due to the wick effect. His death was ruled "death by burning" as he had plainly inhaled the contents of his own combustion.

In December 2010, the death of Michael Faherty in County Galway, Ireland, was recorded as "spontaneous combustion" by the coroner. The doctor, Ciaran McLoughlin, made this statement at the inquiry into the death: "This fire was thoroughly investigated and I'm left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion, for which there is no adequate explanation."

In August 2013, Rahul, a two and one half months-old infant from Tamil Nadu, India, was admitted to the Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital in Chennai, having four reported burn injuries since birth. Initial tests ruled out any abnormalities, and further results led the hospital to conclude that it was not spontaneous human combustion. The baby's mother used to live in an another village which came in the news in 2004, when residents complained that their homes spontaneously burst into flames. Investigations showed that wet cow dung containing phosphorus was present in the huts, which has a low ignition point and can cause fires when the dung dries up.

Cultural references

• The first chapter of Jacob Faithful (1834) describes the spontaneous combustion of Jacob's mother.
• In Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House the character Mr. Krook, an alcoholic landlord, combusts spontaneously due to excessive alcohol in his body.
• According to a March 2013 BBC feature, it has been suggested that the Book of Numbers contains a reference to spontaneous human combustion, but that "their accuracy may be disputed as these accounts are much too old and based on second-hand knowledge to be considered reliable evidence."
• In an episode of The X-Files entitled "Trevor," Agent Scully examines a body with charred remains and initially hypothesizes that the victim's state might have been a result of spontaneous human combustion.
• In an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation entitled "Face Lift," Sara Sidle and Warrick Brown investigate the case of a woman who was incinerated in her easy chair, leading Sidle to suspect spontaneous human combustion.

See also

• Exploding animal
• List of magazines of anomalous phenomena
• Self-immolation

External links

• A BBC article describing the experiment
• “HowStuffWorks ‘How Spontaneous Human Combustion Works’”
• A possible SHC case from Izmir – Turkey, dated 19 May 2013