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Spontaneous Human Combustion

None whatsoever. Anything like it has been attributed to a fire that was slow burning and only burnt most or some of the human and some of the surrounding mattress or couch. The slow burning fires were attributed to cigars or cigarettes most of the time...the person fell asleep with it in their mouths or hands. They were usually intoxicated. One case I heard of, the guy died while having a cigar while he was sitting (had a brain anyurism (sp?) or something). He was this burned guy sitting in the chair with the feet in the boots unburned. You touched him, and he/the ashes crumbled.

I'll try to find some of this on the net.
 
Here we go

'Forensic scientists . . .' they told viewers, '. . . are convinced that, like other fires, these fires are most commonly started by a careless match or cigarette and they believe there is a simple explanation of how this can reduce the body to ash.'

'The scientific explanation -- the 'wick effect' -- proposes that in certain rare circumstances the human being can burn like a candle.'

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.

The film makers concluded emphatically, 'The scientists have clearly demonstrated how the classic features of spontaneous human combustion can occur through normal processes.'

Importantly, the 'wick effect' explanation proposed in the film necessarily entails three key features:-

* It is a slow, gradual process taking many hours, typically 5 to 10 hours or more. In the DeHaan experiment, the pig carcass was still not fully consumed after 7 hours.

* There is always a source of combustion -- matches, cigarette, candle, gas fire, coal fire etc, and some initial accelerant -- perfume, alcohol, or some other spirit.

* Because it is a long slow process involving the melting of body fat, the victim must necessarily
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http://www.alternativescience.com/spontaneous-human-combustion-burning-issue.htm

Just ignore the woo stuff there, sheesh, whackos.
 
Eos of the Eons said:
I think this site is better

http://www.csicop.org/si/9611/shc.html
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Experiments show that liquefied human fat burns at a temperature of about two hundred and fifty° Celsius;

however, a cloth wick placed in such fat will burn even when the temperature falls as low as twenty-four° Celsius (Dee 1965).

In an 1854 English case, a woman's body had been partially destroyed in the span of two hours; it was explained that "beneath the body there was a hempen mat, so combustible, owing to the melted human fat with which it was impregnated, that when ignited it burnt like a link [i.e., a pitch torch]" (Stevenson 1883, 718-27).
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Here's a rebuttal to a supposed "real spontaneous case of human combustion

In making said inspection, the pressure valve on the hot water heater released and as a result, scalding hot water under tremendous pressure was sprayed upon plaintiff." The complaint claimed that the defendant, the manufacturer of the motorhome, was negligent both in the design of the heater and valve and in failing to provide adequate warning of the damage. The suit was later transferred to federal court where it was eventually dismissed for costs paid by the defendant...
I listed more than a dozen additional corroborative factors, including the unburned clothes, which were especially consistent with scalding
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Much better site.

Experiments show that liquefied human fat burns at a temperature of about two hundred and fifty° Celsius; however, a cloth wick placed in such fat will burn even when the temperature falls as low as twenty-four° Celsius (Dee 1965). In an 1854 English case, a woman's body had been partially destroyed in the span of two hours; it was explained that "beneath the body there was a hempen mat, so combustible, owing to the melted human fat with which it was impregnated, that when ignited it burnt like a link [i.e., a pitch torch]" (Stevenson 1883, 718-27).
Click to expand...
 
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.
Click to expand...

I don't know about y'all, but I won't be going to any of this guy's barbecues any time soon.
 
Well my wife went off on me the other night for no apparent reason, I didn't have time to gather data.........Does that count?
 
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