The SD 1979 classic regarding spontaneous human combustion was referenced in today’s column (short answer: it’s not supernatural, an immobile or deeply unconscious person can catch fire from an external source, turn into a “human candle,” and slowly smolder into a pile of ashes overnight) and it got me thinking:
In today’s world of 24-hour news, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, why don’t we hear about any new cases of people being burnt to piles of ash in the middle of an unburnt room?
Then an extremely simple explanation occurred to me: Almost nobody smokes indoors anymore, a social phenomenon that would have been unthinkable even twenty years ago!
Has the (reasonable) vilification of cigarettes led to the end of “spontaneous human combustion”? What other seemingly benign societal trends will have the unforeseen consequence of killing all those little paranormal mysteries that filled those great old Time-Life “Mysteries of the Unknown” books?
People still smoke in their homes, but with declining smoking rates and a less permissive attitude toward allowing it in rental dwellings, it’s true that there is less opportunity to set yourself on fire from an unattended cigarette and “spontaneously combust”.
It is truly remarkable that some famous cases involved elderly and/or infirm people with a history of smoking (who had managed to scorch or burn their clothing or furniture before), but SHC devotees still insisted that they’d ignited by some other means.
I spontaneously combusted once. I was outside watering some plants when I had a Foghorn Leghorn moment. Smelling something burning - hmmm, Mizz Hen must be cooking up some dinner. Wait a minute. IT’S ME!!! Turns out I had dropped a rechargeable screwdriver battery into my pocket hoping I could find a replacement. It was dead, but not all the way dead. The contacts got all jiggy with the keys in my pocket and my leg started smoldering. Fortunately, I had a water hose in my hand and disaster was averted.
While some SHC cases are linked to cigarettes, many others are not. The best guess is that cigarette smoking has little overall effect on the rate of SHC, which was tiny even in the past.
I dunno Exapno. Consider the wiki article on spontaneous human combustion. When investigators Joe Nickell and John F. Fischer studied old reports, they found that SHC typically occurred close to plausible sources of ignition, eg candles, fireplaces, lamps, etc.
Once electricity was introduced, many of these ignition sources declined. I would think that cigarettes would rise in prominence, if only due to proportions.
The OP might note that there are a number of 21st century SHC reports. One is from Ireland, two are from India. Admittedly, none were connected with cigarettes (nor did they appear particularly spontaneous to me).
I, too, once combusted spontaneously. I was attempting to afix a sole to my shoe with crazy glue. Some oozed out and landed on my pants. I smelled smoke and realized a) my thigh was becoming quite heated and not incidentally b) my pants were affixing themselves to my leg. Happily, I managed the situation without a trip to the emergency room or even the first aid kit.
Of course SHC takes place in proximity to a source of ignition. There’s nothing supernatural about it.
Even so, there are now more smokers in the world than the total world population in 1800. If smoking were a major causal factor, in addition to the other possibilities all still in use in many places in the world, then SHC numbers would be steadily increasing. They don’t seem to be.
Fire safe cigarettesare being used in the US and other countries. I don’t know how the dates of implementation line up with the changing reports of SHC but it could be a factor in declining rates. Lots of clothes and upholstery are also made of less flammable materials now also. But it seems most likely that people don’t report many cases of self immolation as SHC anymore.
Regardless of whether it relates to rumors of SHC, I think it is true that people smoke inside a lot less often than they used to in the US, and the US is what most of us on the SDMB will hear about. Young smokers are so used to taking it outside, that many of them (at least of my acquaintance) don’t think twice about going outside their own homes even though they live alone, and could smoke inside if they wanted to. I’ve actually had some say they don’t want their homes smelling like stale smoke. Go figure. (Actually, I wonder if some of them lie on renter’s insurance policies about being smokers, and figure if they never smoke inside, it’s OK.) Anyway, it probably has reduced the fire hazard from a cigarette being left smoldering, or an ash tray emptied into the garbage with a smoldering cigarette in it, or someone falling asleep with a cigarette. Of course, it leads to butt-covered front stoops, and some day, someone will start a fire by throwing a butt in a bush by the stoop on a really dry day.
Also, regardless of world trends, smoking has dropped in the US, and I know some older smokers who smoke inside, but have heeded the warning not to smoke in bed.
Spontaneous human combustion just never…made physics/thermodynamics sense. How does the 98.6 F human body, which rarely exceeds 107 F even in the severest of fevers, get to hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit on its own?
Have there ever been any reports of anyone actually witnessing a case of SHC? All I can remember ever reading have been cases where somebody is found already reduced to a pile of ashes.
Do SHC victims ever take steps to extinguish themselves before they extinguish themselves? Do they yell and scream and roll on the floor? All the stories make it sound like they died peacefully in their sleep in their big easy chairs.
In my youth I read some Fortean speculation about SHC, and even then, was struck by the repeated claims that SHC fires burned “far hotter than would normally have been expected,” or “hotter than science can explain.” One reasonable explanation could be that people are simply not very good at estimating how hot various kinds of fires will be, and are thus surprised by the results (and, perhaps, “science” was never actually consulted).
That same phenomenon (ordinary people being surprised by the intensity of normal physical processes) may be a factor in 9-11 Trutherism. I distinctly recall Rosie O’Donnell indignantly claiming “Steel doesn’t melt.”
I think Unca Cece touched on that - the judgment is being made from the modern practice of cremation, which uses a very, very hot furnace to do the job quickly and thoroughly. It only takes a moment’s thought to realize that you can reduce a roast to ashes in a fairly moderate oven, given enough time; but the idea that it takes thousands of degrees to burn a body to ash is pretty well ingrained.
The evidence seems to be that most victims were drunk, quickly incapacitated by fumes, or already dead or incapacitated from heart attack, stroke or some other medical issue. So a slow “candle-wick” fire would have been able to progress without even some struggle or evidence of an attempt to put it out. And would leave almost zero evidence of medical problems.
An elderly man involved in a “famous” 1966 case apparently didn’t go peacefully:
“Spontaneous human combustion? Actually the infirm ninety-year-old physician had a habit of dropping matches and hot ashes from his pipe upon his robes which were spotted with burns from earlier occasions. He also kept wooden matches in both pockets of his day robe-a situation that could transform an ember into a fatal blaze. Apparently waking to find his clothing on fire, Dr. Bentley made his way into the bathroom with the aid of his aluminum walker-probably at an accelerated pace-where he vainly attempted to extinguish the flames. Broken remains of what was apparently a water pitcher were found in the toilet. Once the victim fell on the floor, his burning clothing could have ignited the flammable linoleum; beneath that was hardwood flooring and wooden beams-wood for a funeral pyre.”
I, too, spontaneously combusted once, but it was back in the 20th century. As a young teenager, I found myself growing faster than I was wearing out my jeans, so I was in the habit of taking out the seams at the ankles so they’d be longer. This resulted in jeans that looked like maxi cutoffs. One night while camping, standing around the campfire, I shoved a log with my foot so that it would burn better and a few moments later was greatly confused when the person next to me started kicking dirt at me. Had I thought to document the situation, I believe this might have been the first ever instance of someone saying “Dude, WTF?” However, as he pointed out to me that I was on fire, my attentions were elsewhere and the moment was lost.
I should have added to my last post that precisely that situation of the second paragraph probably happens hundreds of times a year, and maybe more, and was probably more common in the heavy-smoking days… however, the fire quickly spread and either burned the house down or brought the fire trucks, and no one thought much about it afterwards. It’s only those rare conditions where a slow, contained fire burns someone badly that it becomes supernatural.