SHC - Man vs Fire!

Spontaneous Human Combustion.

Everyone has heard of spontaneous human combustion or SHC for short.  "The Burning of a living body without an apparent source of Ignition".  Well, that's because they didn't find the Match!

Kids, don't light your farts...


There are over 200 recognized cases dealing with SHC.  We as people inherently try to explain everything.  If something can't be explained, we hide or deny it.  Some of the Possible explanations for SHC are...

Unverified natural phenomena

    * Since every human body contains varying strengths of electrical field and the human body also contains flammable gases (mainly methane in the intestines), an electrical discharge could ignite these gases.

    * SHC victims are sometimes described as lonely people who fall into a trance immediately before their incineration. Heymer suggests that a psychosomatic process in such emotionally-distressed people can trigger off a chain reaction by reacting nitrogen within the body and setting off a chain reaction of mitochondrial explosions. This theory has been criticized on the basis that Heymer "seems to be under the illusion that nitrogen exist as gases in the blood and are thus vulnerable to ignition, which is, in fact, not the case." (Mitochondria are organelles found within cells.) The theory also fails to take into account the fact that nitrogen is an inert, non-flammable gas.

    * Another theory suggests high-energy particles or gamma rays coupled with susceptibilities in the potential victim (e.g. increased alcohol in the blood) triggers the initial reaction. 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, nor has a source for the high-energy particles.

    * The victim is an alcoholic and has been smoking while drinking or shortly after drinking a strong spirit. There are claims that this raises the blood alcohol level to a point where it ignites; however, this theory is implausible, since ethanol typically burns only if the concentration is greater than about 23%, whereas a fatally toxic level is about 1%. However, this does introduce the probability that the victim will fall asleep while holding a lit cigarette.

    * A suggested possibility is that both clothing and the person are caused to burn by a discharge of static electricity. A person walking across a carpet can build up sufficient charge and voltage to create a spark. It is unlikely that this could start a clothing fire, as although the voltage can be high (several thousand volts), the stored energy is very low (typically less than a joule).

    * The controversial phenomenon of ball lightning has also been proposed as one of the causes of spontaneous combustion.

Natural explanations

    * Cigarettes are often implicated as the source of ignition. Usually, the victim is alone at the time of death, and it is thought that natural causes such as heart attacks may lead to the victim dying, subsequently dropping the cigarette. Embers from cigarettes and pipes may also ignite clothes. Additionally, cigarettes smoulder at a temperature too low to trigger a flare up of most otherwise combustible materials. Typically if a person drops a lit cigarette on an article of clothing, it will create a burn-hole, but not ignite into an open flame and spread.

    * 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.

    * 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.

Source - Wikipedia

As you can see, so many people have stepped up with so many explanations to try and take it from "Supernatural" to "Nothing but Science, People!".  Why do we feel so compelled to strike the Magical and Unknown from the world?  For me it makes the world far more fun when it's Mysterious.

The explanations above sound logical.  Some sound fitting.  But there are some things involved with at least some of the cases of SHC that don't exactly line up with the theories above...











As you can see from the videos, the theories listed above from Wikipedia, are nothing more then theories.  Certain details about SHC stand out from these theories as mentioned in the videos, such as:  The time frames of each Incineration, the degree of Incineration, the source and ignition seems at best guessed at.

In my opinion, there is more to the phenomena of Spontaneous Human Combustion, then can be explained away.  But that is just my opinion...

What do you think?

Anywho... until next time.

For now, I leave you with another lolcat's picture... their so funny, and cute!