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Spontaneous Human Combustion

A friend at school when I was like 12 used to have a party trick he did where he tipped his mums nail varnish remover down the back of his jacket and set it on fire, then ran around pretending to be a stunt man.

Never injured himself or the jacket, although it was probably for the best that he had a skinhead cut. I don't see how anyone could turn into a fireball with similar.
 
Spontaneous human combustion: Woman bursts into flames on park bench in Germany
She is thought to be in a critical condition in hospital
park-bench-germany.jpg

Police tape cordons off the playground bench where the woman burst into flames, in Flensburg, Germany PA
A woman was left fighting for her life after apparently bursting into flames on a park bench in Germany.

According to the Flensburger Tagesblatt and The Local, fire and smoke emerged from the woman, who is believed to be in her 40s and originally from Mauritius, as she sat on a bench in Flensburg, northern Germany.

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She has reportedly been left severely burned, despite the best efforts of a passer-by who tried to beating out the blaze with his jacket.

Witnesses at the scene told local media the woman "did not say anything" as the flames engulfed her.

She was taken to hospital and has since been transferred to a specialist burns unit in Lübeck, where she is said to be in a critical condition.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...burst-into-flames-on-park-bench-a6721941.html
 
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Wreckless said:
Police tape cordons off the playground bench where the woman burst into flames, in Flensburg, Germany PA
A woman was left fighting for her life after apparently bursting into flames on a park bench in Germany.
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why is there a carpet?
 
An unexplained case. Might be just an ordinary death by fire. I'll keep an eye out for any follow up.

A 70-year-old Irish man has died after his clothing went on fire in London on Sunday.

Police officers, the London Ambulance Service and the London Fire Brigade attended a fire on a street in north London on Sunday and found the man, named as John Nolan, ablaze.

The fire was quickly extinguished by fire officers and the man was taken to a specialist hospital outside London by London Air Ambulance with serious burn injuries. He has since died.

Mr Nolan, a Mayo native, had been living in London since the 1960s.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said his death is being treated as unexplained at this time, and no arrests have been made but inquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances. His family is calling for any witnesses to come forward. ...

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ire...being-found-ablaze-on-london-street-1.3228225
 
Passers-by saw John Nolan, 70, ablaze in a street in Haringey in the middle of the day and attempted to put out the flames before calling police and fire crews.

The former construction worker, who was originally from County Mayo in Ireland, was taken to a specialist hospital but died later.

Today detectives said his death was being treated as unexplained. There were no accelerants found on his body and specialist fire investigators could find no obvious reason for Mr Nolan to catch alight.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/lon...ing-down-street-in-north-london-a3720161.html

(Via LondonFortSoc's Twitter)
 
http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/west-london-news/man-mysteriously-caught-fire-london-14044134

Man mysteriously caught fire in London street in front of horrified onlookers and died in hospital

His death remains a mystery - no accelerant was found.

The death of a retired construction worker who mysteriously caught fire in a north London street is being investigated by Metropolitan Police.

John Nolan, 70, died after he caught ablaze in Orchard Place, Haringey, on September 17.

He was unmarried and originally from County Mayo in Ireland.

Police and emergency services were called to reports of a man on fire near Orchard House at 1pm.

London Fire Brigade (LFB) quickly extinguished the blaze and Mr Nolan was rushed to a special hospital by London Air Ambulance where he sadly died.

A post-mortem showed John died from severe burns.

An inquest will open at Barnet Coroner's Court on March 13 2018.

The cause of the blaze was investigated by specialist LFB investigators, and no accelerant was found.

Detectives from Haringey police are investigating and enquiries to establish what happened are ongoing.

No arrests have been made and the death is being treated as unexplained at this time.

Investigating officer, PC Damien Ait-Amer, said: "We have spoken with a number of witnesses who saw Mr Nolan abalze, but we have yet to establish how the fire started.

"Mr Nolan was a well-liked member of the community and none of our enquiries so far have indicated that he had been involved in a dispute of any sort.

"Nor does any account given by witnesses suggest that he had been in contact with another person at the time of the fire."
 
I've not read much about SHC for a while (because, frankly, it freaks me the hell out) but it always seems to be older people it happens to?
 
XEPER_ said:
I've not read much about SHC for a while (because, frankly, it freaks me the hell out) but it always seems to be older people it happens to?
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It might be a lethal combination of medications and hard alcohol that causes a chemical breakdown.
 
XEPER_ said:
I've not read much about SHC for a while (because, frankly, it freaks me the hell out) but it always seems to be older people it happens to?
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Brassicas.
 
XEPER_ said:
I've not read much about SHC for a while (because, frankly, it freaks me the hell out) but it always seems to be older people it happens to?
Click to expand...

This 2012 New Scientist article:

http://www.brianjford.com/a-1208-NSci-SHC.pdf

... states there are approximately 120 historical cases of what we've come to call spontaneous human combustion.

Of those mentioned in this article and elsewhere the overwhelming majority seem to be of a quite mature age, and of those for which the victim's age is given the clear majority involve people of age 60 or higher.

I can't help but be reminded of the closing gag / tag line to the Rocky & Bullwinkle show's Fractured Fairy Tales retelling of Hansel and Gretel:

'There's no fuel like an old fool.' :roll:
 
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Moth_in_relay said:
Thanks for that really interesting article. It seems promising that his suggested cause (ketosis) is linked with a range of conditions (including diabetes, alcoholism, certain diets...) rather than on one condition alone.
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Agreed ... It's also interesting to read how many unsuccessful attempts were made to validate the 'alcohol-suffused flesh' theories.

Another interesting point is how long ago (centuries, as it turns out ... ) it was when the first documented reports of apparent SHC were recorded.

SIDE NOTE: I've asked the mods to merge this thread into the previously-established SHC thread:

http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/spontaneous-human-combustion.5095/
 
RaM said:
Did'nt Charles Dickens top somone by SHC in Bleak House. ...
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Yep - the death of Old Krook. It was perhaps the most widely read SHC account up to its time (1850's), and it used the phrase 'spontaneous combustion'. The scene was framed just like the paradigmatic 20th century stories - i.e., an isolated person found as no more than ashes and presumed to have 'combusted'.

I don't know if this is still the case, but I recall skeptics back in the 1970's claiming Dickens' fictional account was the template for the eventual meme / trope.

Dickens himself drew criticism from mid-19th century skeptics, against whom he defended his allusion to SHC.

Here's an overview of the Dickens-related SHC uproar:

https://www.popsci.com/dickens-scientific-squabble-over-spontaneous-combustion
 
EnolaGaia said:
The scene was framed just like the paradigmatic 20th century stories - i.e., an isolated person found as no more than ashes and presumed to have 'combusted'.
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what, no surviving prosthetic foreleg and dodgy looking heating appliance in the background ?
 
henry said:
what, no surviving prosthetic foreleg and dodgy looking heating appliance in the background ?
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Nope ... Just a hissing black cat.
 
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