“There’s one mystery I’m asked about more than any other: spontaneous human combustion. Some cases seem to defy explanation, and leave me with a creepy and very unscientific feeling. If there’s anything more to SHC, I simply don’t want to know.”
- Arthur C. Clarke (1994)
The phenomena known as Spontaneous Human Combustion or SHC has been a puzzle for over 200 years since the first recorded case in 1763. Since then, there have been allegedly over 200 potential cases of the phenomena worldwide. SHC, in short, is a descriptive term for when the human body ignites without exposure to an external source of heat or influence that could cause the body to burst into flame.
In cases designated as SHC, the human remains were found to have burnt at an intense heat, centred around the torso and leaving only extremities such as feet or legs intact among a pile of smouldering ash. The phenomena retains more of a mystery when it is also noted that flammable items such as fabrics and paper easily within the vicinity of a SHC victim remain undamaged and intact; items which surely would be destroyed in the level of heat necessary to burn a human body to ash (approximately 1600°F for 2 hours). At this point it has to be noted that while the unfortunate victim’s clothing itself is destroyed, other items in direct contact with the person such as carpets or bed-sheets have escaped with as little damage as a greasy sooty spot.
The first recorded case of SHC was scribed by James Dupont in his now famous works, De Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis. He recorded that in 1725, a woman was found dead, badly burned, and that her husband was actually acquitted of her murder by the French Courts as they deemed it an act of SHC. This legal act seems to have sparked more of an interest in SHC as a phenomena, and it became so widespread a belief that in 1852 author Charles Dickens even used SHC to kill of a character named Krook in his book Bleak House.
In the 18th century, theories as to the cause of SHC began to be formed, and ranged from demonic attack, to divine retribution, to the more ‘mundane’ explanation of alcoholism, where the alcohol in a person’s system reacted with their blood when they were angry causing the internal eruption.
As the cases mounted up, further explanations were put forward during the 20th century, aimed at suggesting that excessive fat in the human body could lead to a SHC demise. Another explanation put forward by scientists is that the phenomena could be caused by an electrical fault within our own bodies, where our internal electrics basically ‘short out’ setting our body fat on fire. Of course, all theories into SHC remain unverified and essentially untested due to the nature of the phenomena itself.
Examples of famous cases of SHC include:
* Nicole Millet (1725): Rheims, France. All that remained were her lower limbs, a few vertebrae and parts of her skull among a pile of ash.
* Mary Reeser (1951): 67 year old victim of SHC from Florida, USA. Burned to death in her relatively undamaged wheelchair, leaving only her spinal column, her left foot and her skull among a pile of ash, still in her chair.
* Gisele Bundchen (1998): 67 year old victim of SHC from Honfleur, France. All that remained was her slippered left foot and a pile of ashes.
* Robert Francis Bailey (1967): Homeless man, London. Firemen report finding Bailey’s burning body in a derelict building, spewing blue flame from his abdomen.
* John Irving Bentley (1966): 92 year old victim, Coudersport, Pennsylvania, USA. All that remained was his right leg, still slippered and a pile of ash.
* George I. Mott (1986): 20 year old died of SHC, New York, USA. All that remained was a section of rib-cage, a leg and his shrunken skull in a pile of ash.
* Jeannie Saffin (1982): 61 year old died of SHC, London. Face and hands burned to bone, 30% burns over body.
* Henry Thomas (1980): 73 year old, Wales. Only the skull and his legs below the knee were left among the pile of ash.
There has also been a case of SHC recorded in the North East of England. In 1908, Wilhelmina Dewar, retired teacher in Whitley Bay, was found dead by her sister. Wilhelmina had burned to death in her bed, but no damage was done to the sheets. Though originally cited as a case for SHC, the coroner refused to accept her sister’s account of finding her charred remains, and it was recorded eventually that she had found her sister burning elsewhere in the house, doused the fire and put her to bed, where she died. However, till the day she died, Wilhelmina claimed that she had been forced to put that second explanation forward, and that her sister’s death was truly a case of SHC.
So does Spontaneous Human Combustion exist? If the two hundred cited cases are anything to go by, it certainly does, but what causes it? A strange reaction in our bodies, turning us into living candles, or supernatural attack and intervention? Hopefully, time will inform us on this mystery and help prevent more of the strange and perplexing deaths caused by SHC.
Sources:
Dupont, J. (1763) “De Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis”
Lamy, M. (2004) “100 Strangest Mysteries”, Metrobooks
Wikipedia
