The Claim
Human Beings can spontaneously burst into flames for no apparent reason
Anyone heard of spontaneous human combustion?, Well that’s what its called when a human being bursts into flames for no apparent reason. Normally when a claim like this is made most people would call it nonsense, but this phenomenon has been documented on numerous occasions and appears to be actually possible. Whenever this happens the victim seems to be ignited from within, as opposed to being set on fire by an external source.
The first mention of this phenomenon comes from 1746 when a scientist named Paul Rolli published an article in the Royal society scientific journal. The amount of genuine cases is unknown, and it seems t be very rare, but a rough estimate as mentioned in a book from 1994 states there has been around 200 cases within the last 300 years, though there’s no way of knowing how accurate that figure is.
One of the strangest things about Spontaneous human combustion is that the fire seems to be located entirely within the body, leaving near by objects to the victim untouched, even if those objects would normally be quite flammable. Another strange point is that the hands and feet are often untouched, as if they fell of during the burning process and are usually untouched by the flames.
Most of the recently documented cases of this mysterious condition all seem to share certain things with each other. The victim is normally an elderly female who had a severe drinking problem, with very few victims being below the age of 50 or male. The victim is always of a very unhealthy nature, with them often being very over weight or of low mobility.
The remains normally consist of both lower legs from the middle of the shin down, and sometimes both hands, but these burn away more frequently than the legs for some reason. The body itself turns into a greasy ash like substance, being made up of a mixture of charred tissue combines with burned fat.
Some of the explanation for this phenomenon include a number of rational explanations, with the most common being the victim died in their sleep while smoking a cigarette and due to their excess fat, the cigarette set fire to their clothes which in turn ignited their body fat.
A scientists named Brian J Ford suggested that a condition called Ketosis which is often caused by alcoholism or a poor diet can produce acetone. This very flammable substance can build up in the body and when introduced to an external source of ignition could cause the victim to burst into flames.
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