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How Spontaneous Human Combustion WorksIs it real? |
By Lucian Dorneanu, Science Editor
3rd of April 2007, 14:56 GMT
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A human body needs two things in order to combust: intensely high heat and a flammable substance. Although mathematically it can be shown that the human body contains enough energy stored in the form of fat and other tissues to consume it completely, in normal circumstances, bodies will not sustain a flame on their own.
Still, in the month of December of the year 1966, the body of 92-year-old Dr. J. Irving Bentley was discovered in his Pennsylvania home by a meter reader. Actually, only part of Dr. Bentley's leg and slippered foot were found. The rest of his body had been burned to ashes. A hole in the bathroom floor was the only evidence of the fire that had killed him; the rest of the house remained perfectly intact.
It was impossible to explain how a human body could have caught fire and eventually burn almost completely, without any source of flame or heat, but most of all, without ingniting any
of the objects around it? Dr. Bentley's case was not the only one, hundreds of similar phenomena being recorded and then labeled as "spontaneous human combustion" (SHC). Although he and other victims of the phenomenon burned almost completely, their surroundings, and even sometimes their clothes, remained virtually untouched.
Is it possible for people to burst into flames, spontaneously and without any apparent cause? many people around the world people think spontaneous human combustion is a real fact, while most scientists remain skeptical about it.
The one thing that really makes this phenomenon strange is the fact that the human remains in the photos of human combustion have often intact extremities. Mostly the head and torso are burnt beyond recognition, while the hands, feet, and part of the legs may remain untouched.
Methane (a flammable gas produced when plants decompose), that gradually builds up in the intestines and is ignited by enzymes (proteins in the body that act as catalysts to induce and speed up chemical reactions), is considered to be one of the most plausible explanations. But somehow, most victims of spontaneous human combustion present a really great damage to the outside of their body, while their internal organs appear almost intact at the autopsy, which seems to go against this theory.
there are also other theories that have been proposed, speculating that the fire begins as a result of a buildup of static electricity inside the body or from an external geomagnetic force exerted on the body. A self-proclaimed expert on spontaneous human combustion, Larry Arnold, has suggested that the phenomenon is the work of a new subatomic particle called a pyroton, which he says interacts with cells to create a mini-explosion. But no scientific evidence proves the existence of this particle.
Supposing this spontaneous human combustion phenomenon isn't real, then what could explain what happened in the many pictures that exist of the charred bodies?
A possible explanation is the wick effect, which proposes that the body, when lit by a cigarette, smoldering ember or other heat source, acts much like an inside-out candle. As the fat melts from the heat, it soaks into the clothing and acts as a wax-like substance to keep the wick burning slowly. Scientists say this is why victims' bodies are destroyed yet their surroundings are barely burned.
This could be true for more "bulky" victims, but what about the skinny ones?
Although most scientists say that there are more likely explanations for the charred remains (a lit cigarette, cigar or pipe, alcohol or criminal cover-up), no one has ever conclusively proven or disproven the truth of spontaneous human combustion.
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