# Spontaneous Human Combustion

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spontaneous-human-combustion/72967>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [July 18, 2001, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spontaneous-human-combustion/72967 "2001-07-18T19:13:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kymri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6bbea6/32.png) [@kymri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kymri)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2001, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spontaneous-human-combustion/72967/1 "2001-07-18T19:13:36Z")

</div>

I hope that Cecil will read this.

Cecil, in your column about SHC (Spontaneous Human Combustion) [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_205b.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_205b.html), your explaination in the update makes a lot of sense, but it doesn’t seem to fit with one of the cases you mentioned in the original article where the victim was in a straw bed. You said that the straw matting was reported to have almost no damage to it. It seems to me even a cooler, slow burning fire would burn straw that was in direct contact.

Any thoughts?  
-Kymri

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2001, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spontaneous-human-combustion/72967/2 "2001-07-18T21:16:42Z")

</div>

The [skeptic’s dictionary article](http://www.skepdic.com/shc.html) talks about the “candle” effect also mentioned in the Straight Dope column. I beleive that’s the explanation offered for a body being burnt despite nearby flammable objects remaining intact.