The Wick-Effect: Can humans spontaneously combust?

Spontaneous human combustion was a rare but real concern to many in the 1800s and there are references of people bursting into flames in pre-1900 fictions. One can take the example of Charles Dicken's famous 1853 novel "Bleak House" in which a character explodes into fire. This phenomenon can also be found in the works of Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Washingtom Irving and others.In the modern times, Spontaneous Human Combustion has appeared in movies and on television shows like "The X-Files" and is also sort of the super power of Johnny Storm, the Human Torch in "Fantastic Four" comic books.

In theories, the fires do not usually start on their own. Cause of forest fires are usually because of a careless camper or lightening strike is not assumed that the flame ignited itself. But people suddenly bursting into flames for no apparent reason is a whole different matter to claim. Yes, bodies can burn. Crematoriums routinely reduce the human body to ashes in the course of a few hours. The story of SHC typically goes as a strange circumstance under which victims burst into flames. There is no source of ignition, no open fires nearby that might set a person aflame and the victims are killed, not as partly burned one arm or leg but fatal killed in a way that some claim as the burning beginning in the chest or stomach area and leaving grisly remains of legs and hands intact. Some also claim that the furniture and floors under and surrounding the victims(including even their clothing) remains unburned, mysteriously.

Taking a closer look at this strange case, most claims are wrong as examples taken from many photographs of supposed SHC victims clearly shows extensive burning and damage to the clothing and surrounding of the burned person.In understanding a bit of fire forensic: many fires are self-limiting, i.e, they put themselves out naturally because they run out of fuel. It is possible for only a bed or sofa or a rug to catch fire without spreading to the rest of the room although people often see fire engulfing and burning down the entire rooms and buildings. Fires normally burn upward instead of outward and therefore there is nothing paranormal or strange about finding a victim in one part of a room burned to death while the rest of the room has little more than smoke damage. But what about the source of the ignition? A century ago, it was blamed on intemperance and even God's wrath: most victims were assumed to be drunkards who had saturated their cells with alcohol. In the 1970s, a quasi-Freudian explanation came into vogue suggesting that a person's depressive emotional state could somehow cause him or her to become inflamed. Others suggest that sunspots, cosmic storms, gas-producing intestinal bacteria or even buildup of the body's supposed "vibrational energy" may be to blame.

But all these explanations are pseudo-scientific and there is no proof for any of them. Our bodies are 60 percent to 70 percent non-inflammable water, and yet the simple fact is that there is no physical or medical mechanism by which a person could possibly self-combust. If people could suddenly burst into flames without being anywhere near an open flame, presumably there would be examples that have occurred while the victim was swimming, in a bathtub, or even scuba diving, yet those cases do not exist.

Only about a dozen claimed real-life cases of SHC have been investigated in any detail. Most of the victims were elderly, alone and near flames (often cigarettes, candles, and open fires) when they died. Several were last seen drinking alcohol and smoking.If the person is asleep, intoxicated, unconscious, infirm or otherwise unable to move or put the flames out, the victim's clothes can act as a wick (most people spend most of their time wrapped in flammable clothing made up of cottons and polyester blends). The flames draw on the body's fat (a flammable oil very near the skin's surface which combines with the burning clothing) to fuel the fire.

There is also a rare medical condition called Stevens-Johnson syndrome that, in extreme cases, may be mistaken for a case of an aborted spontaneous combustion. The skin disease, which can be triggered by a toxic reaction to medications, including antibiotics and prescription painkillers, causes the appearance of severe burns and blisters, and can be fatal.

But if SHC is a real phenomenon, why doesn't it happen more often? There are 7.125 billion people (2013) in the world and yet we do not see much reports of people bursting into flames while walking down the streets or even filmed or videotaped. And if some natural (but unknown) mechanism causes the combustion, why would it only occur in humans? Why wouldn't cows, dogs, elephants, birds or other animals suddenly, randomly and inexplicably explode in a ball of flames now and then? Even if the phenomenon is incredibly rare, with billions of animals on the planet, statistically we should expect to see thousands of them exploding every day all around us.

Though there is no scientific evidence that SHC exists, now and then a case makes the news when officials cannot find another explanation. In 2011, a coroner concluded that Michael Faherty, an elderly Irishman living alone who burned to death in his home in December 2010, may have spontaneously combusted. Though Faherty's body was found a few feet away from an open, burning fireplace the coroner decided that it had not set him afire.

But whether its a fact or a hoax, it is for you to decide.