Spontaneous combustion?

Does any body have any knowledge on what exactly internal combustion/ spontaneous combustion is and how it takes place?If any ats members have any information on this I woul love to hear it.

Spontaneous Human Combustion is the ability of the human body to blister or smoke or otherwise ignite in the absence of an external identifiable known source of ignition. In classic spontaneous human combustion the body burns itself more completely than can normally be achieved at a crematorium. The fires are internal in origin.

www.crystalinks.com...

While is many theories of spontaneous combustion no real specific facts has been brought up to prove it.

From what I've read most spontaneous combustion cases have involved people who smoked, as well as drank..ALOT. It's easily believable they could have fallen asleep in a drunken stupour, dropped the smoke, smoke set light to their clothes which had alchohol soaked into the and they burnt to death. A good explanation I head is that the body fat ignited once the fire got hold and that is what could generate not only intense heat but also the strange sticky substance that is normally found around or near the remains.

There was a (scientific) explanation for why only the body burns & not it's surroundings but I can't remember what it was now. The reason the extremeties are left (feet, untouched or maybe an arm/hand) was something due to the way a fire would burn. Sorry I can't be more helpfull, it was a long time ago that I looked into this phenomenon (or however you spell it hehe).

In 1998, the BBC show QED investigated and "debunked" Spontaneous Human Combustion.

Most impressive of all, the film set out to debunk the idea not merely with argument and theories, but with an actual experimental demonstration on camera in which the carcass of a pig was substituted for that of a human body.

The explanation advanced by the film makers was that a clothed human body is like an inside-out candle where the fat, or fuel source, is inside and the wick is outside. Once burning begins, the melted fat seeps into the clothing and burns like a wick, slowly over a period of many hours.

Dr John DeHaan of the California Criminalistics Institute demonstrated this theory by burning the body of a pig wrapped in a blanket to simulate a clothed human being, using about a litre of petrol as an initial accelerant.

A good site that explores many cases. These instances either don't match the above explanation and/or were witnessed live by credible people to occur in minutes, not hours.

LG your theory i dont think could be true, unless the reson for not burning certian parts of the body (hand foot ext.) is really good and the reson why it doesnt spread is really good i dont think it could be true. also most cases happen in beds, couches and coumfy chairs and when they are asleep, so wouldnt they wake up and move? stop drop and roll? at least try and get the fire out and not just sit there? and if u say no, because it happens to fast, wouldnt it be a stronge enough fire to be able to also light the chair/couch/bed on fire, but it never does. so that means that the fire couldnt burn that fast which would give the person time to either put it out (if external) or if internal they would probibly still at least move from where they were.

There has been many theories on this topic and it was once stated by some program that these cases may be part of Aliens using lasers to kill humans , Imagine being face to face with MR> Reptilian and he's got a Lazer Beam in your face!!!

I personaly belive it could be that these people had some habit of eating matches or match sticks through out their life's and while smoking: the years of bad habits eating matches since the material doesnt break down just ignited the poor fellow...

Well this one here is for Science although I hope my theories are just!!!!

[edit on 28-4-2005 by 2ndSEED]

until they catch someone on tape exploding I say it's bunk, watched a proggie on it...


so yeah.. i'll be waiting for the video.

2ndSEED i like our theory on SHC who knows how many people eat matches regualrily and smoke?

also has anyone here seen the south park episode on it apparintly u get it from keeping in farts

Originally posted by trust_no_one
also has anyone here seen the south park episode on it apparintly u get it from keeping in farts

Spontaneous combustion as it matters is when you have a really, really, really dry period and something dry, like hay, and it's really really really hot out. A little friction, a random bit of heat, a fluctuation, constant beating by sunlight, whatever. Something sets it off and things catch fire and burn FAST. It can bring down barns from nowhere. Hence, spontaneous.

Wait i think I get it. People get really drie and BOOM

i think SHC is just a cold and well thought out way to cover-up or comemet a murder. and get away with it. think about it in the point of veiw of a cop,person burns up in bed or were ever. no signs of fow play,so cause of death "unknown". but did they look for a fuel possable forced down into the body or injected in the muscel after death or worse before. and lit with a electic charge the fire will burn up all proof that any one esle was there. just a theory

dragon your explination actually seems pritty good but how would you explain a story like Mary Resser? also i was watching unexplained myseries on fox (sundays after amarican dad) and it talked about a guy who survived one (somehow i dont know how) nd his wive even saw it happen

amory your explination would probibly work but how often would that ever happen? also some people think it's internal so were would u get sunlight, why would it by dry in your stomach and were would u get the hay from?

Originally posted by Amorymeltzer

Spontaneous combustion as it matters is when you have a really, really, really dry period and something dry, like hay, and it's really really really hot out. A little friction, a random bit of heat, a fluctuation, constant beating by sunlight, whatever. Something sets it off and things catch fire and burn FAST. It can bring down barns from nowhere. Hence, spontaneous.

If my memory serves me correctly, a composte pile, while decomposing, gets really, really hot and really, really moist....but there can be spontaneous combustion.

Originally posted by Amorymeltzer

Spontaneous combustion as it matters is when you have a really, really, really dry period and something dry, like hay, and it's really really really hot out. A little friction, a random bit of heat, a fluctuation, constant beating by sunlight, whatever. Something sets it off and things catch fire and burn FAST. It can bring down barns from nowhere. Hence, spontaneous.

actualy i have family that are dary/beef farmers.i was always told that it was "green" or wet hay that spontainiously combusted fro the heat that IT prduces on it's own with "composting".

also "oily" rags can do the same type of thing. i have worked in shops for about 15 years or so and have yet to have this happen. but it is my understanding that it HAS caused some severe garage fires in both the automotive industy and in privat home garages. this is why they should be stored in metal, airtight containers. i will however note that even thouh i have yet to see a fire i have felt how warm that oily rags can get, even in the winter.

part of "spontainius cumbustion" is that it provides it's own heat for the fire to start.

when i said fuel i ment gas,kerosine or lighter fulid. that kind of fuel. and a tazzer or some thing like it. i talked to a arsenest for my final term paper in a class i took in collage. he had a sick mind but that was some of what he said he also talked about useing cemicals but ill have to find the paper to write what he said about that

Originally posted by trust_no_one
LG your theory i dont think could be true, unless the reson for not burning certian parts of the body (hand foot ext.) is really good and the reson why it doesnt spread is really good i dont think it could be true. also most cases happen in beds, couches and coumfy chairs and when they are asleep, so wouldnt they wake up and move? stop drop and roll? at least try and get the fire out and not just sit there?

That would seem to be a reasonable expectation, however:

Are You a Smoker? THE LEADING CAUSE OF FIRE FATALITIES IS ACCIDENTAL HOUSE FIRES STARTED BY THE CARELESS USE OF SMOKING MATERIALS.
About a thousand people die each year in fires started by the use of smoking materials -- matches, lighters and cigarettes. DON’T LOSE YOUR LIFE BECAUSE OF SMOKING CARELESSLY!!! Falling asleep while smoking is the most common cause of serious burn injury to the elderly, and often results in fatalities. It doesn't take much imagination to figure out how this happens.
Typically, the older smoker is tired, fatigued, and often under the influence of alcohol or medication. He or she sits down in a comfortable upholstered chair, lights up a cigarette, and turns on the TV. After a little while, they begin to feel drowsy, and then fall asleep. The cigarette falls from their hand onto their lap, the chair, or the rug. Or, the cigarette may have been placed in an ashtray on the arm of the chair, and when the smoker falls asleep, he knocks the ash tray over without ever waking up. Cigarettes continue to burn even though they are not puffed, and will ignite fabric and other materials used in upholstered furniture. If undetected, these cigarettes can smolder for hours before a flare-up occurs and ignites combustibles such as clothing, upholstery, the rug, newspapers or draperies. NEVER SMOKE IN BED.

www.vdfp.state.va.us...


Now if the person was already dead, or totally comatose, and the “inside out candle” scenario plays out, then you wind up with a classic case of SHC.

also has anyone here seen the south park episode on it apparintly u get it from keeping in farts

As odd as it sounds that is somewhat feasible, when someone passes gas they actually are expeling a form of methane which is an explosive gas. Im sure im not alone in saying that at some point in time during my younger years i sat on a couch drinking with the guys and lighting farts to see how large of a ball of flames could be produced. I remember one or two of the photos ive seen where people have alledgedly combusted and i noticed in the photos that there was a nearby flame source ( fireplace in one photo a candle in another, ill have to look for the photos ) Now im also sure that every little fire bug here has at one point in time taken an aresol can and sprayed it towards a lighter and made thier own blowtourch, but did you know that the flame can can slip back into the aresol can when you let off the nozzle, thus exploding the can depending on how much gas it contains. ( this happened to me once with starter fluid) Now picture that nozzle is an anus , somebody really rips one near an open flame and you end up with ye ole flame thrower , the pressure drops and the flame sneaks back up the anus on a trial of liquid methane the hits several large methane pockets which also end up burning quickly.


Dont know if it can happen but hey who knows..........

I like that idea, drogo, of the oil.

There's a type of alcohol, can't for the life of me remember the name, that burns at room temperature. Does this really count as spontaneous combustion?

Technically, it's a spontaneous reaction and it's combustion, but then again so is Sodium (Na) or Potassium (k) with water. What about those, does that count?

This story was originally posted here by William One Sac. It's a report of a woman being severly burned from the inside by a toxic reaction to prescription medication which made me wonder if perhaps spontaneous combustion could be the result of a similar toxic reaction to a common drug(s) in certain people. Just another theory.

www.dailystar.com...

A beautiful 18-year-old Tucson softball player has suffered severe burns over 80 percent of her body but has been nowhere near a fire.

In an extremely rare, often fatal and little-known severe toxic reaction to a medical drug, Samantha Grasham's body caught fire - from the inside out - blistering most of her skin, as well as her mouth, throat, esophagus and airway, perhaps leaving her scarred for life.

kegs, I'd buy that, there's not much reason for a person to randomly burn. Chemicals seem like a very feasible reaction.

Maybe she swallowed sodium/potassium!

That does royally suck, though. Beyond comprehension.