Spontaneous Combustion

It occurs when an object, in the case of spontaneous human combustion, a person, bursts into flame from an internal chemical reaction, apparently without being ignited by an external heat source.

Spontaneous combustion occurs when an object, in the case of spontaneous human combustion, a person, bursts into flame from an internal chemical reaction, apparently without being ignited by an external heat source.

The first known account of spontaneous human combustion was reported in 1663 by a Danish anatomist Thomas Bartholin, who described how a woman in Paris simply "went up in ashes and smoke" while she was sleeping. In 1673, a Frenchman named Jonas Dupont published a collection of spontaneous combustion cases in his work De Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis.

Since then numerous reports of spontaneous human combustion have been made. All seem to follow the same pattern: the victim is almost completely consumed, usually inside his or her home. Sometimes, accompanying the body, a sweet, smoky smell in the room where the incident occurred is found.

Strangely enough, charred bodies of spontaneous human combustion are often found with their extremities intact. Although the torso and head are charred beyond recognition, the hands, feet, and/or part of the legs are unburned. Also, the room around the person shows little or no signs of a fire, apart from a greasy residue that is sometimes left on furniture and walls. In rare cases, the internal organs of a victim remain untouched while the outside of the body is charred.

Not all spontaneous human combustion victims simply burst into flames. Some develop strange burns on their body which have no obvious source, or emanate smoke from their body when no fire is present. And not every person who has caught fire spontaneously has died, a small percentage of people have actually survived what has been called their spontaneous combustion.

The Theories

To combust, a human body needs two things: intensely high heat and a flammable substance. Under normal circumstances, our bodies contain neither, but some scientists over the last several centuries have speculated on a few possible explanations for the occurrence. In the 1800s, British author Charles Dickens ignited great interest in spontaneous human combustion by using it to kill off a character in his novel Bleak House. The character, named Krook, was an alcoholic, following the belief at the time that spontaneous human combustion was caused by excessive amounts of alcohol in the body.

Today, there are several theories. One of the most popular proposes that the fire is sparked when methane (produced when plants decompose) builds up in the intestines and is ignited by enzymes. Yet most victims of spontaneous human combustion suffer greater damage to the outside of their body than to their internal organs, which seems to go against this theory. Physicists speculate that the fire begins as a result of a build up of static electricity inside the body or from an external geomagnetic force exerted on the body. A self-proclaimed expert on spontaneous human combustion, Larry Arnold, has suggested that the phenomenon is the work of a new subatomic particle called a pyroton, which he says interacts with cells to create a mini-explosion. But no scientific evidence proves the existence of this particle.

As of March 2005, no one has offered scientific proof of a theory explaining spontaneous human combustion. If humans can't spontaneously combust, then what is the explanation for the stories and pictures of people who have seemingly burned from within?

Zachary Engerer