The hotly debated topic of Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC) is back in the limelight with a new case announced in Ireland following an inquest on Sept. 22.
This phenomenon has been put forward to explain mysterious deaths over at least the last three centuries when people appear to have burned to death without any external source of ignition.
Galway resident Michael Faherty died in a fire in his sitting room on Dec. 22, 2010. The 76-year-old’s body was completely cremated, but the only damage to his house was scorch marks on the ceiling above and the floor below him.
A neighbor called emergency services after a smoke alarm went off at around 3 a.m. that night, but experienced fire officers could not determine the cause of the fire.
West Galway coroner Dr. Kieran McLoughlin told an inquest that the pensioner had spontaneously combusted, The Irish Times reported.
The coroner was satisfied that there was no trace of an accelerant or foul play involved, and that the nearby fireplace had not started the blaze.
“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,” Dr. McLoughlin said, according to The Irish Times.
But how could a human body ignite without a flame? Possible explanations include being unconscious due to sleep or alcohol intoxication and therefore unable to put out a fire from a nearby source, such as a candle or cigarette.
Known as the "wick effect," this hypothesis proposes that an external source ignites the victim’s clothing, which acts like a wick, setting fire to subcutaneous fat, which supplies sufficient fuel to burn most, if not all of the body.
On the other hand, SHC theories include static electricity building up inside the body due to friction or possibly even the Earth’s geomagnetic field.
Alternatively, methane could accumulate in the victim’s gut and be ignited by metabolic enzymes, or high-energy compounds called phosphagens in the muscles could spontaneously ignite.
A number of deaths have been put forward as alleged SHC over the last 300 years or so, for example, those of Henry Thomas, a Welshman who burned to death in 1980, and George I. Mott, a New York firefighter who died in his home in 1986. The bodies of both men were mostly incinerated.
All that remained of Mott was a shrunken skull and part of his ribcage. Investigators suggested a gas leak or electrical arc from a mains outlet may have been responsible.
Likewise, Thomas’ skull was left behind plus part of each leg below the knee. The chair he had been sitting in was half destroyed, but it appeared he had been comfortably seated watching television.
A few individuals claim to have survived SHC events. In 1985, Paul Hayes in England suddenly found himself surrounded by flames from the waist up, while walking along a quiet road at night.
He tried to run away, but fell over and curled up, believing he was dying. About half a minute later, the fire stopped, just as inexplicably as it began, and he made his way to a hospital for burns treatment.
According to The Irish Times, coroner Dr. McLoughlin has never encountered such a case in the 25 years that he has been working in this field.
He had consulted Bernard Knight’s book "Forensic Pathology," which mentions spontaneous combustion, noting that alleged cases almost always occur near an open fireplace or chimney.
