The Daily Log 2.0 (Not so daily now): Spontaneous Human Combustion

Today it's not about ghosts - a change-up for a Thursday in May, something a little different is always good for the mind...

Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC) for those who are not familiar with it, refers to the death from a fire originating without any external source of ignition and which has started inside of the person’s body.

Now this isn’t anything new you understand, this idea and the term were both proposed in the 1700‘s in an article published by Paul Rolli which was published in the Philosophical Transactions. According to Larry E. Arnold who wrote the book “Ablaze,” There have been close to 200 cited reports of spontaneous human combustion throughout the world in the past three hundred years. And amazingly, it continues to occur even today! Here are a few “modern” stories...

It was July 2, 1951 when the remains of 67 year old Mary Reeser were discovered in the St. Petersburg, Florida apartment. Her landlady had come by to collect the rent on that morning as she did each month and always, Mary Reeser would open the door and invite the landlady in for a cup of coffee or tea, hand over a check for the rent, etc. It was around eight that morning when the landlady rang the doorbell. After several minutes of not being answered, she began to worry and placed her hand on the doorknob. It was quite warm to the touch. Worried, the landlady called police. Upon arriving and entering the apartment, they found the remains of Mary Reeser sitting in a chair, mostly bone and ash with the exception of her left foot, still encased in one of the slippers she’d been wearing. Only it and her skull remained intact. Reports and evidence was sent off to the F.B.I. and it was their conclusion that Reeser had taken sleeping pills which she was known to do regularly and then accidently set herself on fire with a cigarette after the pills had taken affect.
That of course was the “official” cause of her death - but if you think about it, how would that be possible? Wouldn’t falling asleep with a lit cigarette consume more than just her body in flames? Hmmmm....

December 4, 1966. John Irving Bently was enjoying a relaxed evening at home entertaining some friends. Sometime between nine o’clock that evening when the last of his friends departed, and the next morning when the meter reader showed up to check the meter, John Bently had spontaneously combusted, leaving nothing more than a pile of ashes and his right leg. The meter reader had noticed a strange odor and had seen some bluish smoke and had decided to investigate further. He found Bently or what remained of him, in the man’s bathroom at which time he rain for help.
According to official reports, it’s claimed that Bently had been smoking his pipe when some ashes dropped onto his robe which he was believed to be wearing, which caught on fire. Bently made an attempt to put out the smoldering robe he was wearing with water from the bathroom but failed. There was a hole burned in the floor next to the remains of Bently’s body. I would think that a fire so intense as to burn up a human body so completely and burn a hole through the floor would be hot enough to burn down the rest of the property, and yet...

One of the most unusual cases to date is that of Jeannie Saffin, who self-combusted in front of her elderly father. Jeannie was 67 when she died but because of mental disabilities, she continued to live with her father in the family home. Her father was 82 at the time. Well, the two were sitting in the kitchen when Jeannie’s father saw a bright flash out of the corner of his eye. He turned to ask Jeannie if she too had seen the flash but to his amazement, when he turned towards his daughter, he saw that she was completely engulfed in flame. According to her father’s story, she just sat there without moving, her hands in her lap. As quickly as he could, he yanked jeannie over to the sink to try and put out the flames and disfigured his hands in the process. Acoording to medical reports, Jeannie suffered “Full thickness burns” on her face, hands and abdomen, which means that the flesh was burned off down to the subcutaneous fat. Her hands and face were pretty much destroyed and she lapsed into a coma, dying eight days later. Her combustion pretty much remains unexplained although there have been attempts to explain it. Everything from a spark from her father’s pipe to his setting her on fire himself. Neither which btw, could not be proven.

These are but three cases regarding Spontaneous Human Combustion - As for myself and if I believe it's possible? Of course, anything is possible and just because we cannot explain it doesn't mean that it can't exist. Check out the video below...