SHC - Spontaneous Human Combustion

I have written this article after a few requests and discussions on the matter.

Firstly, I will say I do not think that SHC is a paranormal phenomenon, and I like to think I can safely say that after spending over 15 years studying the Paranormal!! However, this does not mean that I do not believe in the possibility of SHC from a scientific point of view.

Over the past 300 years, there have been 200 documented cases of human deaths through unexplained burning, where in 94% of all cases, the torso, arms and head have been reduced to ash along with the bone structures. However, strangely enough, lower limbs have not been touched and show no sign of heat damage. The same can be said for materials around the corpses, including clothing articles, carpets and furniture apart from the immediate area where the corpse has settled.

To understand what might be going on with SHC, we need to go back to basics and look at what we need to start a fire. Let us look at the Fire Triangle: This states that we require three elements for fire to exist - A heat source for ignition, a fuel Source and Air. With these three elements in place, there exists the potential for fire to be generated.

So, firstly, let’s look at the obvious factor: Air. Unless you spend your entire life inside a sealed bubble with gasses other than Oxygen, Nitrogen and some other elemental gases, you are surrounded by Air! We even breathe it into our bodies and the gasses are even absorbed into our blood stream - particularly Oxygen, which we require to survive at 21% by volume to maintain optimum stability, although the body can tolerate deviations in this. However, breathing in Oxygen at 17% by volume, we start to show the first symptoms of hypoxia and as the levels grow less, the symptoms get worse and more deadly until at less than 6% we enter unconsciousness and face death within minutes. So, not enough Oxygen is very bad. What about too much? Again, not very good for you! There is such a condition as Oxygen Poisoning and it can affect the brain. But more to the point, and bears significance to this discussion, our blood can absorb 200cc of Oxygen PER LITRE, which is higher than the absorption rate of water. Too much Oxygen, such as the use of Oxygen masks or hyperventilation, will expand the limits of flammability.

Secondly, we need a fuel to burn. Unfortunately for us, that is our physical bodies. Now, despite the average adult human body being made up of about 60% water, the human body, under the correct conditions, burns very well. One of the main reasons for this is the supply of fat and oils we store within our bodies, which are predominantly stored in our torso, arms, buttocks and neck, which many of us know only too well!! It is also a revealing fact that some oils have the tendency of self-ignition under the correct conditions. This includes certain monounsaturated oils (vegetable based) that some of us consume on a regular basis. Linseed Oil, particularly raw Linseed which is used as a health supplement, is a Class I hazardous oil in the realms of Oxidation reactions and self-combustion.

Lastly, we need heat. We need something to induce the ignition. Our bodies are always producing heat, mainly from the burning of fat stores within. Most of the time, this heat level is maintained by our bodily mechanics, but sometimes, just sometimes, this mechanism fails us, probably because we have become ill, and our temperatures can soar well above normal levels. It is worth noting, as it bears relevance and taking our Linseed oil example from above, that in tests, the spontaneous heating effect of raw Linseed oil is favoured at temperatures from 24 °C to 44 °C. The normal core temperature of an adult is about 37°C.

So, scientifically, we possess within our bodies all the elements of the fire triangle that can result in fire production. Not only do we hold all the elements, but all of them can be found within the main area of the body that tends to be the main affected area within reported SHC cases – the torso. Is this a coincidence? I do not believe it is. How the actual ignition occurs and how the body actually burns, although I believe it is an internal, flameless combustion as opposed to a “bursting into flames” burning effect (almost like when we get scalded), is yet to be theorised and proven..