Spontanious Human Combustion.

[mook]

or S.H.C, , aint it weird that a human body can be burnt to ashes and there is no fire damage anywhere else except for the body, whats your opinions on this.

[Little Claire]

Not that wierd really lol

I think the generally accepted theory is the human wick theory. Basically the body is ignited from a completely explanable source (you'll be amazed how many of the people were smokers for a start) It's quite hard for a body to burn but the cloths act as a wick and body fat burns very slowly. They've done experiments with a pig in a dressing gown.....honestly lol

The reason limbs are often left is that the body runs out of energy (not much fat on the limbs) and feet are often left because if you're sat in a chair the heat will naturally travel up rather than down.

I'll try and find a website to explain it better than I can

It took all the mystery out of it for me. It's certainly more feasible than ball lightening as a theory for SHC

[Little Claire]

This site has a section on SHC. It also poses some questions about the candle wick theory. Still does it for me though

[Kim]

I have seen the pig and dressing gown theory on TV several years ago!

Do you have the link Claire?

[Mr. Jon Donnis]

I remember when they filmed it, they burnt a pig in a gown, to prove their point, in the end the fire got out of control and the scientists ended up looking a bit foolish!! whoops

[sophie]

recently, at work, they thought someone had this happen to them, it turns out that (its a hospital) the man had used the alcohol hand stuff as he left one of the wards (as you should) then wen and lit a cigarette igniting his own arms in one fell swoop

[Mr. Jon Donnis]

Whoops!!

[nicky]

There's a good article here: Spontaneous Human Combustion.

It looks like it's the unlikely sequence of events and the scarcity of the phenomenon that makes it appear to be real.