Comments on: Irishman’s Death Ruled Spontaneous Combustion

By: Tim Kramar

Tim Kramar — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:28:58 +0000

I note that all these cases involve old people.

Other than this one, most of these cases happened years ago, not recently.

By: Procrastinateher

Procrastinateher — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 11:26:18 +0000

There was a documentary on spontaneous human combustion a few years back. They even recreated a supposed SHC scenario using a dead pig (their flesh burns most like ours).
Basically, have somebody who can’t move (dead or unconscious), an accelerant and a few hours for the flames to be low and hot enough to consume as much fuel from the body as possible.
Apart from the very small burn circle around the victim, it also does weird things like melt the plastic from the TV in the same room (due to the high temperature).

As for a lack of accelerant… what if the poor man had some alcohol in/on him? Since ethanol would burn into carbon dioxide and water vapour, there would be no traces left. And a low flash point would mean he’d just have to be sitting too close to his fire.

Though, I’m not a forensic scientist or anything…

By: dadnamit

dadnamit — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 04:31:02 +0000

Space aliens with a death ray.

By: BNKPrasad

BNKPrasad — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 01:21:51 +0000

This can be caused by anti matter that must have strayed.

By: Dr Nseobong Nkanta

Dr Nseobong Nkanta — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:13:45 +0000

This must be one post mortem diagnostic debacle that is not unspeculative enough to be discarded. I just hope that proponents of spontaneous combustion in humans would first try this theory on those lab rats before coming out to qoute Charles Dickens.

By: newcountryman

newcountryman — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:26:16 +0000

“We have some people here at work who if it happenned to no one would even notice.” Now that’s funny!

By: Duh

Duh — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:20:39 +0000

Hello! They were VAMPIRES!

By: Sandra MacMillan

Sandra MacMillan — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:11:00 +0000

Now there was a man that really did love his chilli hot…!

By: puppyfeet217

puppyfeet217 — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:57:37 +0000

“Instead of looking for the most unlikely cause, this coronor should be looking for the most plausible explanation.” Investigators DID look at the most plausible causes…and none of those causes FIT the evidence. I like Bob’s explanation – has to be a spell. LOL.

By: Paulie

Paulie — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:46:28 +0000

Did the guy work with any kind of pesticides or fertilizers? There was a story on Mythbusters a while back that proved if a mans clothes was covered in accelerant even if it was dried up it can ignite in a flash fire.