Spontaneous Human Combustion - A Burning Issue

[Sir Kenyth]

Originally posted by MagiK: Despite the loads of annecdotal evidence I do not believe anyone anywhere has "spontaneously combusted". I believe its a hoax right up there with crop circles, bigfoot, UFO abductions, Psychics and tarot card readers. *He's a skeptic...he's Mr. Skeptic* [img]smile.gif[/img]

Well MagiK, let's be fair. We know humans, like anything else, are "combustible" under the right circumstances. It's just the "Spontaneous" part we have a problem with.

[Attalus]

To quote the immortal Benjamin Disraeli: "I don't believe a word of it." Some outside force would have to heat a human body to something like 2000^o to have them combust.

[True_Moose]

I've actually followed this phenomenon quite a bit, and there is an interesting theory out there. This is called the "wick effect." Basically, the body's internal digestive tract especially turns itself into fuel. Now, I'm NOT sure how it starts (which is really the question, isn't it? [img]tongue.gif[/img] ) but because the broken down organic compounds found in the tissues burn so fast, it's difficult for anything else to burn. Note that this is all from recollection, mainly from a show I saw on Discovery Channel a coupla years ago. [img]smile.gif[/img]

EDIT] Crap, sorry, just saw Sir K's post. Whoopsies [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[ 07-03-2003, 12:37 AM: Message edited by: True_Moose ]

[Masklinn]

If it was real we would have heard about it from more serious sources, don't you think so ?

[Sir Kenyth]

It's very rare because it's very difficult to get the process started. First, you need a person with a high body fat content (obese, elderly). Second, that person needs to be either already dead, comatose, or knocked out (heart attack, stroke, drugs, alchohol). Third, you need somthing that will burn easily and wick on or near the person (clothing, sheets, stuffed furniture). Fourth, you need an ignition source (cigarrette, fireplace). Last but not least, you need perfect ignition and smoldering conditions so that body fat starts to melt before the clothing is completely consumed and there will be enough oxygen to sustain the fire.

According to articles read and shows watched, most victims of combustion are overweight, elderly, consume alchohol and/or prescription drugs and smoke. One point brought up is that there isn't enough time for a smoldering fire to consume the victims. In many cases when provable, the time estimated by the witnesses when they last saw the victim alive is way off.

This is certainly not proof. Combustion is so rare that it's very hard to study. Data is scarce and unreliable. All possible answers are pretty much theory, opinion, or conjecture. This particular one I find lucid and sound. It is also the only theory able to be recreated to some extent.

If in fact the human body were so combustible we would be using corpses to fuel power plants [img]smile.gif[/img]

[AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe]

I don't believe people can spontaneously combust. It either just a hoax or people being extremely stupid, IE lighting a match while covered in gasoline.

[Sir Kenyth]

Originally posted by MagiK: If in fact the human body were so combustible we would be using corpses to fuel power plants [img]smile.gif[/img]

I'm telling you MagiK. They showed the experiment with the pig corpse. I saw it with my own eyes! You just need enough energy to steam off the water. The fat will fuel the fire and once a high enough temp is acheived, the remaining organic matter will burn. Not easy or probable by any means, but possible.