Burnt from within. In Russia, the number of cases of spontaneous combustion of people is growing. Many spontaneous human combustions were

Years in Ipswich (England), the daughter of 60-year-old alcoholic Grice Peta found her father dead on the floor of the house: according to her, "he burned without fire, like a bundle of firewood." The old man's clothes were practically intact.

The first reliable evidence of cases of human spontaneous combustion comes from the year when the Frenchman John DuPont published a book with a collection of cases of human spontaneous combustion called " De Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis". In it, among other things, he mentions the case of Nicolas Millet, who was acquitted of the charge of murdering his wife when the court was convinced that she died as a result of spontaneous combustion. Millet's wife, a heavily drinking Parisian, was found at home with only a pile of ashes, a skull and finger bones left of her. The straw mattress on which she was found was only slightly damaged.

science attitude

Spontaneous human combustion is the subject of numerous rumors and disputes. Until now, there is no evidence of the existence of this phenomenon, and its very possibility is today rejected by most scientists. There are two main hypotheses that explain cases of human spontaneous combustion, both of which imply an external source of fire: this is the Human Candle hypothesis and ignition by static electricity or ball lightning.

Although from a chemical point of view, the human body contains enough energy stored in the form of body fat, under normal circumstances, a person cannot ignite spontaneously due to the high water content (about 70%), which requires too much energy to evaporate.

Characteristics of cases of spontaneous combustion

Commonly referred to as human spontaneous combustion, all cases have a number of distinguishing characteristics:

• The victim's body catches fire with no visible external source of fire.
• The fire usually does not spread beyond the victim's body. Furniture, things near the victim and sometimes even clothes remain intact. However, there are cases when, during spontaneous combustion, a wooden floor was burned through.
• The human body during spontaneous combustion burns much more thoroughly than with ordinary ignition. Damage, however, is unevenly distributed over the body: sometimes a whole skull remains and, less often, limbs.
• The majority of human spontaneous combustion events occur indoors, although this may be due to an incomplete sample of spontaneous combustion events.
• The burning temperature of a body in case of spontaneous combustion is much higher than that used in crematoria. In order for human bones to turn to ashes, temperatures above 1700 ° C are required, while in crematoria temperatures around 1100 ° C are used, and bones must be crushed to completely burn the corpse. Even if a person's body is doused with gasoline and set on fire, it will not be able to burn completely: the fire will stop immediately after the liquid fuel runs out: the human body contains too much water to extinguish the flame. It is known that Adolf Hitler ordered that his body, after committing suicide, be doused with gasoline and burned. Despite the fact that the body of the dictator was doused with 20 liters of gasoline, the soldiers of the Red Army found Hitler's corpse practically intact.
• During spontaneous combustion, the flames are very small, but exposure to hot air can damage nearby objects: for example, a TV screen may burst.
• Males are more likely to be the victims of spontaneous combustion than females.
• In most cases, the intended victims are the elderly.
• The intended victims don't feel like they're on fire. In some cases, the victims were found to have died of a heart attack.
• There are people who survived spontaneous combustion.

False characteristics

Some characteristics are often mentioned in connection with human spontaneous combustion, but in fact, they do not reveal any pattern in this phenomenon.

• Intended victims are usually fat. This is not true: most of the alleged victims are of normal weight. This explanation is usually used by proponents of the Human Candle Hypothesis.
• Intended victims always suffer from alcoholism. Alcoholism is often used as an explanation for this phenomenon by Victorian moralists, as well as advocates of sobriety and religious morality. It was believed that alcohol soaked the body to such an extent that a spark was enough to ignite it. Actually, it's impossible. Many researchers, including Yakov Perelman, in his "Entertaining Physics" noted that the tissues of the human body cannot be saturated with alcohol to such an extent.
• The skulls of the alleged victims are shrinking from the heat. The skull, devoid of skin, hair, eyes, nose and muscle fibers, may appear to the observer to be smaller than the size of the head. There are no temperature conditions under which human bones would decrease in size. The only case where a reduction in the skull was erroneously documented was the death of Mary Hardy Reaser in the city. This case subsequently became the subject of jokes related to human spontaneous combustion.
• Suspected spontaneous combustion victims set themselves on fire with a carelessly thrown cigarette. This is not true: most of the alleged victims were non-smokers. A carelessly thrown cigarette can cause a fire, but it cannot set fire to the human body: if you press the burning tip of the cigarette to the skin, only a slight burn will occur, and the cigarette itself will go out.

Hypotheses

Self-ignition does not exist

Most hypotheses about the origin of the phenomenon are based on the idea that, as such, spontaneous combustion does not exist. In addition to physical interpretations of the phenomenon, there are more prosaic explanations. In the city of Count Gorlitz, who lived in Darmstadt, came home and found that the door to his wife's room was locked, and the Countess herself was nowhere to be found. When the door to her room was broken open, the partially burned body of Countess Gorlitz was found on the floor, and the room itself was also damaged by fire: the desk burned down, the window and mirrors were broken, and things in the room were in disarray. The question arose as to whether this case is spontaneous combustion.

Three years later, a man named Stauff, a former servant of the count, was accused of killing the countess. Stauf confessed that he once accidentally entered the countess's room, and was attracted by the jewelry and money of the deceased. Stauff decided to steal them, but at that moment the mistress of the house unexpectedly returned. Stauf managed to strangle the woman, and in order to hide the trace of the crime, he set fire to it.

It should be noted that very often cases that can be attributed to spontaneous combustion are often mistaken by forensics as an attempt to hide the traces of a crime. However, usually the belongings and jewelry of the alleged victims of spontaneous combustion remain intact.

Among other versions, one can also highlight the hypothesis of Alan Baird and Dougal Drysdale: suppose that a person works in a garage and usually cleans his clothes of detritus with a jet of compressed air, but this time he cleaned his overalls with a jet of pure oxygen, which temporarily, but very significantly increased flammability clothes. A lit cigarette is enough to put a person on fire.

Modern researchers explain the ignition of a person under normal conditions by two main hypotheses: the theory of the Human Candle and the theory of ignition from static electricity.

The Human Candle Effect

The Human Candle effect is a phenomenon where the victim's clothes are soaked in melted human fat and begin to act as a candle wick. Such a phenomenon can indeed occur under certain conditions. The theory assumes an external source of ignition: after it dries out, combustion will continue due to the smoldering of fat.

BBC experiment

The results of the experiment generally confirmed the theory of the Human Candle, however, some researchers, including John Hymer, said that the experiment itself was falsified.

It should be noted that the Human Candle theory does not answer a number of questions related to cases of spontaneous combustion:

• Why were most of the victims thin people, practically devoid of body fat?
• What was the source of the fire in most cases (most of the victims were non-smokers)?

MythBusters Experiment

Static ignition hypothesis

Other hypotheses

There are other, much less popular hypotheses:

In his book "The Enchanting Fire", published in John Hymer, after analyzing a number of cases of spontaneous combustion, he concluded that lonely people who fall into prostration right before catching fire are most often its victims.

Hymer suggested that a psychosomatic disorder in depressed people could lead to the release of hydrogen and oxygen from the human body and start a chain reaction of mitochondrial microexplosions.

Another researcher, Larry Arnold (Chairman of ParaScience International), in his book Ablaze! () expressed the opinion that the cause of spontaneous combustion may be as yet unknown subatomic particle, called pyroton, emitted by cosmic rays. Usually this particle freely passes through the human body without causing harm (like a neutrino), but sometimes it can hit the cell nucleus and lead to a chain reaction that can completely destroy the human body. This hypothesis was not supported. In Fortean Times magazine, Ian Simmons reacted to this hypothesis: "There is no evidence for the existence of such a particle, and inventing it just to explain human spontaneous combustion is a stupid idea."

There is a hypothesis that cases of human spontaneous combustion are caused by a discharge of ball lightning, however, due to the fact that the phenomenon of ball lightning itself is poorly understood, it is too early to draw any conclusions about the involvement of this phenomenon in human spontaneous combustion.

Statistics and cases of survival after spontaneous combustion

Accurate statistics on cases of spontaneous combustion is almost impossible to compile. In the USSR, all cases that resembled spontaneous combustion were usually attributed to careless handling of fire, or they were given a different rational explanation even when the victim's body was completely burned out and the clothes remained intact. Some worldwide statistics can be compiled on those cases when the cause of the fire remained unknown, and the investigation into the case was discontinued.

• 1950s: 11 cases;
• 1960s: 7 cases;
• 1970s: 13 cases;
• 1980s: 22 cases.

There are people who survived cases of spontaneous combustion. Among the best-known, documented examples are the 71-year-old Briton Wilfrid Gauthorpe and the American salesman Jack Angel. In both cases, doctors were unable to determine the cause of spontaneous combustion. The affected limbs had to be amputated.

References in literature

• In Charles Dickens' novel "Bleak House" spontaneous combustion of a negative character takes on a symbolic meaning.
• In the poem Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, the landowner Korobochka mentions that her serf blacksmith burned down.

“... Inside, he somehow caught fire, drank too much, only a blue light came from him, all decayed, decayed and blackened like coal ...”

• Émile Zola's novel Doctor Pascal details the death of old Macquart, who suffered from alcoholism. In a dream, he dropped his pipe on his clothes and completely burned out.
• In Jules Verne's novel The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain, a case is described when the leader of a Negro tribe, also suffering from alcoholism, caught fire and burned to the ground.
• Herman Mellville's short story "Redburn" is about a sailor who spontaneously ignited, possibly from alcohol.
• In the novel by A. G. Lazarchuk and M. G. Uspensky "The Hyperborean Plague" () representatives of the nationality nimulans capable of causing spontaneous combustion of their victims.
• In the play by Les Podervyansky "Nirvana, or Also Sprach Zarathustra" there is a reference to this phenomenon

Mentions in popular culture

Incidents of human spontaneous combustion have often been played up in popular culture:

• In the episode "Spontaneous Combustion" of the animated series South Park, some of the city's residents died of spontaneous combustion due to holding the gases in for too long.
• In the episode "The Fire Within" of Psi Factor, people spontaneously combust due to nanomachines that were secretly placed in their bloodstream by the government.
• In the episode "Fire" of the X-Files series, a criminal (possibly an IRA guerrilla) could independently cause his spontaneous combustion and, in a fiery guise, commit murders.
• In the movie Bruce Almighty, one of the characters spontaneously ignites his head.
• In the film Spontaneous Combustion (1990), spontaneous combustion is linked to the nuclear plans of the Pentagon, which tested volunteers in the 1950s.
• In film

There is a lot of speculation on this issue, many years of debate, but this phenomenon has not yet been proven. There are several theories to explain the possibility of spontaneous combustion, and why this might occur. The most common possible causes are:

• human candle effect;
• acetone in the body (ketosis disease);
• static discharge.

It has been proven that the human body is 70% water, but it also contains enough energy stored in adipose tissue. Under normal conditions, the body will not be able to turn this energy into a flame. There must be some special reason. Therefore, the phenomenon of SHC is classified as a paranormal phenomenon.

Stories of spontaneous human combustion

For the first time, spontaneous human combustion was recorded in such an ancient text as the Bible. But this cannot be considered as reliable evidence. Over the past 300 years, more than 200 facts have been recorded. The first reliable historical facts confirming the effect of spontaneous combustion originate from 1673. Frenchman Jonas Dupont published a collection of studies of spontaneous cases of spontaneous combustion of people. He was inspired to write this book by a police report in the Nicole Millett case in which a man was acquitted of the murder of his wife. The court was convinced that spontaneous combustion had killed her. She burned to ashes on a bed of straw, but the bed did not catch fire.

On April 9, 1744, 60-year-old Grace Pett burned to death in Ipswich, England. She abused alcohol and was found by her daughter. Only a handful of ashes remained of her, and nearby objects and clothes lying next to her were not damaged by fire.

In the 1800s, many writers began to describe dramatic death scenes using this paranormal phenomenon. Charles Dickens, Emile Zola and Jules Verne described spontaneous human combustion in their books.

Captain Marryat, in his novel Jacob the Faithful, borrowed details from an 1832 London police report. He described the death of the mother of his leading character Yakov. His mother was addicted to alcohol, and during her stay on the barge, burned down in the cabin. Moreover, a charred tar stain and ashes remained on the bed, and the bed itself did not catch fire.

In 1852, Charles Dickens spontaneously combusted his character Crook in Bleak House. Crook was also an alcoholic. At that time it was believed that the phenomenon of spontaneous combustion (SHC) was associated with alcohol fumes. Philosopher and literary critic George Henry Lewis ridiculed Dickens. He stated that Charles attempted to "perpetuate the uneducated superstition" that SHC was impossible. Lewis investigated various paranormal phenomena in detail and, in particular, about thirty cases of SHC.

The death of the Italian countess Cornelia de Bandi, burned to death in her bed, is strikingly similar to the case of Nicole Millet, who inspired Dupont to write the book 100 years ago. There was a pile of ashes, and the bed was untouched by fire. Many have written about SHC that the temperature at which spontaneous combustion occurred exceeded 1000 degrees Celsius.

On May 18, 1957, 68-year-old Anna Martin of Pennsylvania in West Philadelphia was found burnt to death. Her shoes and part of her leg remained. The medical examiner claimed that the combustion temperature reached 1500-2000 degrees, although the newspapers remained intact nearby.

On December 5, 1966, Irving Bentley of Pennsylvania was found dead. There was a pile of ash and part of the foot. In the bathroom where he burned down, there was a burnt-out floor about a meter in diameter.

Perhaps the loudest case of spontaneous combustion occurred in St. Petersburg, Florida. In 1951, Mary Reeser, aged 67, was found in her apartment, burned down in her chair. All that was left of the 175-kilogram woman was a burnt seat, a skull and one whole leg, 10 pounds of ashes and a number of slippers. The police report indicated that Ms. Reeser was reduced to smoke from a flammable acetate nightgown that caught fire from a dropped cigarette.

The mysterious death of Mary Reeser

The medical examiner stated that it took 3,000-degree heat to reduce the body to ashes, but it would have to destroy the apartment as well. In fact, the damage was minimal, and only the ceiling was covered with soot.

Theories about spontaneous combustion

Many victims of spontaneous combustion were alcoholics. In the 19th century, experiments were carried out with meat soaked in alcohol. By itself, it could not catch fire, even from the heat.

Many of the victims were overweight. There is a whole theory called the "Human Candle Effect", when sunbathing is associated with clothes soaked in fat. In the presence of an external source of fire, such clothes could really ignite, and after the disappearance of the fire, the person continued to smolder, like a candle fueled by fat. But again, this is just a hypothesis. There were also thin people among the victims.

There was another version - static electricity. The electrostatic potential on the body can even be very significant.

Also, there are explosive combinations of chemicals that can form in the digestive system due to malnutrition. In ketosis, acetone accumulates in the human body. When ignited (even from a static discharge), a person can burn. Such experiments were carried out with pigs pumped with acetone.

The electrical fields that surround the human body can generate internal heat.

There are many theories, but a satisfactory explanation for the paranormal phenomenon of spontaneous human combustion (SHC) has never been given. The mystery has not yet been solved.

Similar consequences of spontaneous spontaneous combustion

After spontaneous ignition, as a rule, burns are more severe than from normal fire. Burns are not distributed evenly throughout the body. The limbs usually remain, but the torso is burned. Sometimes the torsos are completely burned and even the bones turn to ashes, while the arms, legs or head remain unburned.

Only objects that were directly on the body are burned. Fire does not go beyond the body. Often flammable materials were only a few inches away and did not ignite.

Objects are damaged by very high temperatures: melted candles, cracked mirrors.

Crematoria tend to be around 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, but there are still bone fragments that need to be ground down. And in cases of spontaneous spontaneous combustion, the temperature exceeds 3000 degrees, leaving almost nothing but ash.

Types of spontaneous human combustion

All of the fatal spontaneous combustions were recorded from the words of investigators who studied what exactly could have happened to the victim.

Some cases were with witnesses, some were not. All of them took place indoors. The victim was left alone for a long period of time. If there were witnesses nearby (in the next room), no one ever heard screams of pain, calls for help.

Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) is a rare phenomenon, often described as a paranormal phenomenon, in which a person can ignite without a visible external source of fire. Spontaneous human combustion is the subject of numerous rumors and disputes. Until now, there is no exact physical evidence of the existence of this phenomenon, and its very possibility is now rejected by most scientists. There are two main hypotheses that explain cases of human spontaneous combustion, both of which imply an external source of fire: the Human Candle hypothesis and ignition by static electricity or ball lightning. Although from a physical point of view, the human body contains enough energy stored in the form of body fat, under normal circumstances, a person cannot ignite spontaneously.

1. History

2 Characteristics of cases of spontaneous combustion

2.1 False characteristics

3 Hypotheses

3.1 The Human Candle Effect

3.1.1 BBC experiment

3.2 Static ignition hypothesis

3.3 Other hypotheses

4 Statistics and cases of survival after spontaneous combustion

5 Mentions in literature

6 Mentions in popular culture

7 Notes

8 See also

9 Bibliography

Story

The phenomenon of human spontaneous combustion is often erroneously called an urban legend, although its descriptions are found in antiquity, for example, in the Bible:

The people began to murmur aloud against the Lord; And the Lord heard, and His anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord was kindled among them, and began to destroy the end of the camp. (Num. 11:1)

Medieval literature also records cases of human spontaneous combustion: for example, during the reign of Queen Bona Sforza (between 1515 and 1557), the knight Polonius Worthius died in Milan in front of his parents and sons: after two ladles of drunk wine, he suddenly began to spew flames from his mouth and burned down .

The most detailed evidence of human spontaneous combustion begins to appear from the 18th century. In 1731, under unclear circumstances, Countess Cornelia di Bandi died in the Italian city of Cesena: her legs, dressed in stockings, and part of her skull were found in the bedroom.

In April 1744, in Ipswich (England), the daughter of a 60-year-old alcoholic Grice Peta found her father dead on the floor of the house: according to her, "he burned without fire, like a bundle of firewood." The old man's clothes were practically intact.

The first most reliable evidence of cases of human spontaneous combustion comes from 1763, when the Frenchman John Dupont published a book with a collection of cases of Human spontaneous combustion entitled "De Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis". In it, among other things, he mentions the case of Nicolas Millet, who was acquitted of the charge of murdering his wife when the court was convinced that she died as a result of spontaneous combustion. Millet's wife, a heavily drinking Parisian, was found at home with only a pile of ashes, a skull and finger bones left of her. The straw mattress on which she was found was only slightly damaged.

Around 1853, in Columbus, Ohio, a German liquor store owner caught fire and was devoured by flames. This case was mentioned by Charles Dickens in the preface to the second edition of his novel Bleak House, in which he described a fictional case of human spontaneous combustion. In 1861, literary critic and philosopher George Henry Lewis published his correspondence with Dickens, in which he accused the writer of spreading fables:

“In these notes, they usually write that greasy soot remains from the human body, and some remnants of bones. We all know that this can't happen."

In 1870, a note "On Spontaneous Combustion" was published by an assistant professor of forensic medicine at the University of Aberdeen. In it, he wrote that he found about 54 modern scientists who had ever written about human spontaneous combustion, of which 35 clearly expressed their opinion about this phenomenon.

Five (including Justus Liebig) argued that spontaneous combustion was impossible and that all documented cases were hoaxes.

Three (including Guillaume Dupuytren) believed that the cases of spontaneous combustion were real, but had a different nature, namely: there was some external source of fire.

Twenty-seven scientists (including Devergy and Orfil) insisted that spontaneous combustion of the human body is quite possible.

Characteristics of cases of spontaneous combustion

Commonly referred to as human spontaneous combustion, all cases have a number of distinguishing characteristics:

The victim's body catches fire with no visible external source of fire.

The human body during spontaneous combustion burns much more thoroughly than with ordinary ignition. Damage, however, is unevenly distributed over the body: sometimes a whole skull remains and, less often, limbs.

The majority of human spontaneous combustion events occur indoors, although this may be due to an incomplete sample of spontaneous combustion events.

The combustion temperature of the body in case of spontaneous combustion is much higher than that used in crematoria. In order for human bones to turn to ashes, temperatures above 1700 ° C are required, while in crematoria temperatures around 1100 ° C are used, and bones must be crushed to completely burn the corpse. Even if a person's body is doused with gasoline and set on fire, it will not be able to burn completely: the fire will stop immediately after the liquid fuel runs out: the human body contains too much water to extinguish the flame. It is known that Adolf Hitler ordered that his body, after committing suicide, be doused with gasoline and burned. Despite the fact that the body of the dictator was doused with 20 liters of gasoline, the soldiers of the Red Army found Hitler's corpse practically intact.

During spontaneous combustion, the flames are very small, but exposure to hot air can damage nearby objects: for example, a TV screen may burst.

Males are more likely to be the victims of spontaneous combustion than females.

In most cases, the intended victims are the elderly.

The intended victims don't feel like they're on fire. In some cases, it was found that the victims died of a heart attack.

There are people who survived spontaneous combustion.

False characteristics

Some characteristics are often mentioned in connection with human spontaneous combustion, but in fact, they do not reveal any pattern in this phenomenon.

The intended victims are usually fat. This is not true: most of the alleged victims are of normal weight. This explanation is usually used by proponents of the Human Candle Hypothesis.

The intended victims are always alcoholic. Alcoholism is often used as an explanation for this phenomenon by the moralists of the time of Queen Victoria, as well as by the advocates of sobriety and religious morality. It was believed that alcohol soaked the body to such an extent that a spark was enough to ignite it. Actually, it's impossible. Many researchers, including Yakov Perelman, in his "Entertaining Physics" noted that the tissues of the human body cannot be saturated with alcohol to such an extent.

The skulls of presumed victims shrink from the heat. The skull, devoid of skin, hair, eyes, nose and muscle fibers, may appear to the observer to be smaller than the size of the head. There are no temperature conditions under which human bones would decrease in size. The only case in which a skull reduction was erroneously documented was the death of Mary Hardy Reeser in 1951. This incident subsequently became the subject of jokes related to human spontaneous combustion.

The alleged victims of spontaneous combustion set themselves on fire with a carelessly thrown cigarette. This is not true: most of the alleged victims were non-smokers. A carelessly thrown cigarette can cause a fire, but it cannot set fire to the human body: if you press the burning tip of the cigarette to the skin, only a slight burn will occur, and the cigarette itself will go out.

Hypotheses

Most hypotheses about the origin of the phenomenon are based on the idea that such spontaneous combustion does not exist. In addition to physical interpretations of the phenomenon, there are more prosaic explanations. In 1847, Count Gorlitz, who lived in Darmstadt, came home and found that the door to his wife's room was locked, and the Countess herself was nowhere to be found. When the door to her room was broken open, the partially burned body of Countess Gorlitz was found on the floor, and the room itself was also damaged by fire: the desk burned down, the window and mirrors were broken, and things in the room were in disarray. The question arose as to whether this case is spontaneous combustion.

Three years later, a man named Stauff, a former servant of the count, was accused of killing the countess. Stauf confessed that he once accidentally entered the countess's room, and was attracted by the jewelry and money of the deceased. Stauff decided to steal them, but at that moment the mistress of the house unexpectedly returned. Stauf managed to strangle the woman, and in order to hide the trace of the crime, he set fire to it.

It should be noted that very often cases that can be attributed to spontaneous combustion are often mistaken by forensics as an attempt to hide the traces of a crime. However, usually the belongings and jewelry of the alleged victims of spontaneous combustion remain intact.

Among other versions, one can also highlight the hypothesis of Alan Baird and Dougal Drysdale: suppose that a person works in a garage and usually cleans his clothes of detritus with a jet of compressed air, but this time he cleaned his overalls with a jet of pure oxygen, which temporarily, but very significantly increased flammability clothes. A lit cigarette is enough to put a person on fire.

Modern researchers explain the ignition of a person under normal conditions by two main hypotheses: the theory of the Human Candle and the theory of ignition from static electricity.

The Human Candle Effect

The Human Candle effect is a phenomenon where the victim's clothes are saturated with melted human fat and begin to act as a candle wick. Such a phenomenon can indeed occur under certain conditions. The theory assumes an external source of ignition: after it dries out, combustion will continue due to the smoldering of fat.

In 1965, Professor David Guy conducted an experiment simulating the effect of the Human Candle. He took a small portion of human fat and wrapped it in a rag to simulate clothing. He then hung this "candle" over a Bunsen burner. He had to keep the burner on for over a minute before the fat began to smolder. This is explained by the fact that human fat contains a lot of water. In describing his experiment, David Gee noted that the fat burned with a smoky yellow flame, and it took about an hour for the bundle to burn completely. This explains the length of the combustion process in cases attributed to human spontaneous combustion, as well as the possibility that parts of the body without fatty deposits may remain from the victim.

In judicial practice, there are several cases demonstrating the effect of this effect. In February 1991, in a forest belt near the city of Medford (Oregon, USA), two vagrants discovered the burning body of an adult woman, lying face down on fallen leaves. They raised the alarm, and soon the sheriff arrived at the crime scene. It was determined that the victim was obese. There were several stab wounds on her back and chest. The soft tissues of the right arm, torso and upper legs were completely burned. Most of the bones in the affected areas were preserved, but the bones of the pelvis and spine were completely destroyed and turned into a gray powder by fire. The killer was subsequently arrested: he confessed to dousing the body with barbecue liquid and setting it on fire. Also, according to his testimonies, it turned out that the woman's body, by the time it was discovered, had been burning for about 13 hours. Thus, a combination of circumstances contributed to the emergence of the Human Candle effect: the presence of a catalyst and an artificial fuse, as well as the fullness of the victim.

BBC experiment

In August 1989, the following experiment was shown on the BBC's QED TV program featuring Dr. John de Haan of the California Institute of Criminology: the body of a pig was wrapped in a woolen blanket, placed in a tightly closed furnished room, doused with a small amount of gasoline and set on fire. The carcass took some time to heat up. Pig fat was stoked with a low yellowish flame at a very high temperature. It was found that the meat and bones of the pig were completely destroyed by fire, and the surrounding objects were practically not affected (with the exception of a melted TV screen).

The results of the experiment generally confirmed the theory of the Human Candle, however, some researchers, including John Hymer, said that the experiment itself was falsified.

It should be noted that the Human Candle theory does not answer a number of questions related to cases of spontaneous combustion:

Why were most of the victims thin people, practically devoid of body fat?

What was the source of the fire in most cases (most of the victims were non-smokers)?

Static ignition hypothesis

The static ignition hypothesis is based on the fact that, under certain conditions, the human body can accumulate such an electrostatic charge that clothing can catch fire when it is discharged.

The current during an electrostatic discharge is relatively small, but the potential difference during it can reach several thousand volts. An electrostatic discharge of up to 3 thousand volts is not noticed by a person, however, depending on the state of the atmosphere (especially air humidity), as well as the surface with which the human body comes into contact, the charge can reach large values. For example, walking on a carpet can create a potential difference of 35,000 volts. There are cases when people accumulated up to 40 thousand volts of static charge in their body.

Static discharge can ignite gasoline at gas stations and is statistically the cause of most explosions, not cell phone radiation. About 70% of explosions are due to static electricity, the accumulation of which is especially facilitated by cold, dry weather.

The idea that a powerful electrostatic discharge could cause spontaneous human combustion was first proposed by Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute professor Robin Beach, although he also expressed doubt that there is such an electrostatic discharge that could lead to ignition of the human body. However, in some cases, a static discharge can generate a bright glow, as well as be accompanied by a hiss. Sometimes the discharge may ignite dust or lint adhering to clothing, which may also cause a fire.

There are testimonies of people who survived after powerful electrostatic discharges. Most claim that they absolutely did not feel pain or any discomfort. There may be electrostatic discharges of over 40,000 volts that can actually serve as a fuse and subsequently lead to the Human Candle effect.

Other hypotheses

There are other, much less popular hypotheses:

In his 1996 book The Enchanting Fire, John Hymer, after analyzing a number of cases of spontaneous combustion, concluded that his victims are most often lonely people who fall into prostration right before catching fire.

Hymer suggested that a psychosomatic disorder in people suffering from depression could lead to the release of hydrogen and oxygen from the human body and start a chain reaction of mitochondrial microexplosions.

Another researcher, Larry Arnold (Chairman of ParaScience International), in his book Ablaze! (1995) suggested that spontaneous combustion could be caused by an as yet unknown subatomic particle called pyroton emitted by cosmic rays. Usually this particle freely passes through the human body without causing harm (like a neutrino), but sometimes it can hit the cell nucleus and lead to a chain reaction that can completely destroy the human body. This hypothesis was not supported. In Fortean Times magazine, Ian Simmons reacted to this hypothesis: "There is no evidence for the existence of such a particle, and inventing it just to explain human spontaneous combustion is a stupid idea."

There is a hypothesis that cases of human spontaneous combustion are caused by a discharge of ball lightning, however, due to the fact that the phenomenon of ball lightning itself is poorly understood, it is too early to draw any conclusions about the involvement of this phenomenon in human spontaneous combustion.

Statistics and cases of survival after spontaneous combustion

Accurate statistics on cases of spontaneous combustion is almost impossible to compile. In the USSR, all cases that resembled spontaneous combustion were usually attributed to careless handling of fire, or they were given a different rational explanation even when the victim's body was completely burned out and the clothes remained intact. Some worldwide statistics can be compiled on those cases when the cause of the fire remained unknown, and the investigation into the case was discontinued.

1950s: 11 cases;

1960s: 7 cases;

1970s: 13 cases;

1980s: 22 cases.

There are people who survived cases of spontaneous combustion. Among the best-known, documented examples are the 71-year-old Briton Wilfrid Gauthorpe and the American salesman Jack Angel. In both cases, doctors were unable to determine the cause of spontaneous combustion. The affected limbs had to be amputated.

References in literature

In Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House, spontaneous human combustion is the main theme of the book.

In the poem Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, the landowner Korobochka mentions that her serf blacksmith burned down.

“... Inside, he somehow caught fire, drank too much, only a blue light came from him, all decayed, decayed and blackened like coal ...”

Emile Zola's novel "Doctor Pascal" describes in detail the death of the old man Macquart, who suffered from alcoholism. In a dream, he dropped his pipe on his clothes and completely burned out.

In Jules Verne's novel The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain, a case is described when the leader of a Negro tribe, also suffering from alcoholism, caught fire and burned to the ground.

Herman Mellville's short story "Redburn" is about a sailor who spontaneously ignited, possibly from alcohol.

Mentions in popular culture

Incidents of human spontaneous combustion have often been played up in popular culture:

In the episode "Spontaneous Combustion" of the animated series South Park, some of the town's residents died of spontaneous combustion due to holding the gases in for too long.

In the episode "Fire" of the X-Files series, a criminal (possibly an IRA guerrilla) could independently cause his spontaneous combustion and, in a fiery guise, commit murders.

In the movie Bruce Almighty, one of the characters spontaneously ignites his head.

In the film Spontaneous Combustion (1990), spontaneous combustion is linked to the nuclear plans of the Pentagon, which tested volunteers in the 1950s.