Spontaneous Human Combustion

One of the most fascinating unexplained phenomena’s is spontaneous human combustion. The idea is that a human being can just burst into flames and burn away without an external source of ignition. The most common theory is that the heat is internally generated by a chemical reaction however many scientists deny the phenomena exists suggesting we simply haven’t found the right explanation.

Many cases of spontaneous human combustion have been reported over the years and in fact you can find references to it as far back as medieval times. Victims are generally entirely burned away, sometimes portions of their clothes or individual limbs are left behind and the surrounding furnishings are always left unscathed as though the person combusted from the inside with a fierce intensity.

The idea has been used extensively in fiction throughout the years and various people have attempted more serious studies but there is no concrete proof that it can occur and it seems to fly in the face of conventional wisdom. The majority of cases have occurred when the victim is alone and only ashes have been found later, sometimes with a single limb or head still intact and occasional burnt patches on the ground around the body and greasy soot deposits on the walls or ceiling. There have been occasions when witnesses have seen a person burst into flames before their eyes but they are often poorly documented.

One of the most famous cases occurred in 1951 when Mary Reeser, dubbed “The Cinder Lady” by the press was found burned to death in her chair. There was little evidence of fire in the room beyond her charred remains which included part of her left foot still in the slipper and her shrunken skull. Some objects which had been close to her were melted as though from heat damage. The FBI investigated and suggested she had fallen asleep while smoking and fallen victim to the wick effect whereby the fat in the human body starts to burn and can cause total combustion.

In 1966 a doctor named John Bentley was found burned to death in the bathroom of his house in Pennsylvania. A meter reader noticed a strange smell and discovered his charred remains. All that was left of the doctor was ashes and the lower half of his right leg with a slipper still on it. The coroner reported a death from asphyxiation and 90 percent burning of the body.

In 1967 a homeless man named Robert Bailey was witnessed by a fireman as he burned to death. The fireman reported a flame shooting out from the man’s abdomen and suggested that heavy alcohol consumption may have somehow led to the combustion. The London house that Bailey died in was derelict and so had no electricity or gas supply, he was also not a smoker. The autopsy found that he asphyxiated after inhaling fire fumes.

In 1982 a woman called Jeannie Saffin combusted in her London kitchen before her father’s eyes. He shouted to his son-in-law for help and they both report seeing flames pouring out of her, she actually survived for eight days after with severe burns before she passed away. The police found no evidence of fire in the kitchen and were at a loss to explain the death; even the chair she had been sitting in was not burnt. The coroner recorded it as a death by misadventure.

There have been several other unexplained cases although sceptics point out that in the majority there was a fire source nearby. Various theories have been proposed to explain the phenomena including excess alcohol consumption, freak electricity and gas accidents, dietary intake causing a chemical reaction, a build up of methane gas in the body or even a raging bacterial infection. Of course there are always simple and rational explanations for these occurrences and the principle of Occam’s Razor suggests it far more likely there were external causes in each case.