You know the story: A perfectly normal person suddenly catches on fire and poof, they're
gone.
For years, spontaneous human combustion, or SHC, has baffled scientists and amateur paranormal
investigators alike.
Like any other paranormal phenomenon, there are a number of logical explanations for spontaneous
human combustion.
Whether or not you believe them, on the other hand, is entirely up to you.
The burning question
It takes a lot of energy to burn a human body.
According to body burning experts, because those guys definitely exist, it takes somewhere
between 1400 and 1800 degrees Fahrenheit to cremate a human being.
That's a lot hotter than a match, candle, or cigarette — the usual suspects in a case
of SHC.
And yet, according to a survey from the Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine, suspected cases
of spontaneous human combustion completely reduce the victim's body to ash.
"Goodnight sweet prince."
Even stranger, the victims' surroundings in these cases usually don't burn, even if they
consist of flammable materials, which seems counter-intuitive given how intense the necessary
fires must be.
Human candles
There's actually a widely accepted theory that explains away almost everything about
spontaneous combustion.
It's a phenomenon called the "the wick effect," which says that the human body can act sort
of like a candle under the right conditions.
According to the theory, if a person's clothing catches on fire by, say, a stray cinder from
a nearby fireplace or a dropped cigarette — the heat can split the skin and melt the
victim's body fat.
The fat becomes a source of fuel that keeps the fire going, like an oil lamp.
If you've ever had a grease fire in your kitchen, it's basically like that, except...with a
person.
"Haha."
Heated debate
The wick effect explains most spontaneous human combustion cases, but not all of them.
And, as with anything that's possibly paranormal, there are a number of alternate theories out
there.
Researcher Brian J. Ford argues that it may be caused by ketosis, a condition that often
happens in people with drinking problems in which a glucose-starved body starts feeding
on fat.
Ketosis increases the body's acetone levels, and since acetone is flammable, the person
is more likely to catch on fire.
Other theories aren't so reasonable.
At least one scientist thinks that ball lightning, a largely unexplained scientific phenomenon,
might cause SHC.
Some paranormal researchers even think that SHC might be related to poltergeists.
Those are interesting theories, but come on… it's obviously Aragorn every time.
Rise to flame
One of the most famous modern cases of spontaneous human combustion occurred in 1951, when a
67-year-old widow named Mary Reeser died in a mysterious fire in her St. Petersburg, Florida
apartment.
The mysterious fire propelled the city of St. Petersburg into the national spotlight,
and attracted the attention of amateur sleuths all over the country.
But there may be a perfectly logical explanation for Reeser's demise.
In 2009, reporter Jerry Blizin, who covered the Reeser story in 1951, revisited the famous
case, now armed with some additional details provided by the FBI.
The FBI concluded that the fire had been started by Reeser's cigarette.
"Thank you for not smoking."
Murder charge
Spontaneous human combustion may or may not be real, but it does have real-life consequences
— including, in at least one case, keeping a suspected murderer out of jail.
According to a Doctor's Review article, a woman named Nicole Millet — a notorious
drunk — burned to death in her kitchen one night in 1725.
Her husband was convicted of the murder and given a death sentence, but a physician named
Claude-Nicolas Le Cat convinced the court that Nicole spontaneously combusted.
Most gullible judge ever?
Yeah, we'll go with that.
Political fuel
If you haven't noticed by now, alcohol plays a big role in spontaneous human combustion
cases.
In fact, the link between drinking and supposed cases of SHC was so well documented that,
in 1799, a physician even listed which spirits were most likely to cause SHC.
Bad science or not, the public association between alcohol and SHC fanned the fires of
the temperance movement.
Throughout the 1800s, prohibitionists used anecdotal accounts of spontaneous combustion
to push the anti-alcohol agenda.
Claiming that the easiest way to avoid exploding is to simply stop drinking is a pretty compelling
argument, after all.
Spontaneous human combustion actually became one of the main arguments for temperance arguments
until roughly 1928.
A modern problem
Don't be fooled: while the history of spontaneous human combustion is filled with pseudoscience,
it still crops up in the modern age.
A BBC article reports that in 2010, a 76-year-old man named Michael Faherty died at his home
in Ireland.
According to reports, he was burned to a crisp.
Dr. Ciaran McLoughlin, the coroner who handled Faherty's case, was baffled.
Left with a blank death certificate, McLoughlin only had one choice.
He told the BBC:
"This fire was thoroughly investigated and I'm left with the conclusion that this fits
into the category of spontaneous human combustion, for which there is no adequate explanation."
Was it really spontaneous human combustion, or was McLoughlin simply out of options?
We'll leave it to you to decide.
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