Spontaneous human combustion is the bodies ability to ignite, spoke or blister in the absence of any external source of ignition. The body burns itself completely, sometimes leaving a limb as evidence that there was a body, but not igniting the surrounding area, these fires come from within the body.

There have been many reports over the years of spontaneous human combustion, at least 200 known cases have been reported. The first known recorded person to die of spontaneous human combustion was a wife of a Frenchman in the year 1673, only her skull and finger bones were left, the straw of her mattress was only slightly damaged by the flames.

And in 1744 in England a woman found her father consumed by spontaneous human combustion on the floor of his bedroom, none of his nearby clothing had been touched.

Spontaneous human combustion has happened in modern times as well, a report in 1951 of a woman that was found in her apartment completely reduced to a pile of ashes with only her skull and a left foot untouched.

The phenomenon associated with spontaneous human combustion is that the heat required to reduce a body to ashes is 3,000 degrees and at this temperature the whole area around the bodies should have been reduced to ashes also, but they are not.

Not everyone though dies from spontaneous human combustion. In 1944 a man survived the experience he reported that there was no feeling of heat nor did he saw flames, he just saw smoke and felt no pain.

There have been a few witnessed incidents they describe that the person seems to explode into flames and that there is no possible source of ignition. The flames seem to erupt directly from the person’s skin. Other times the witnesses do not see any flames just smoke. Witness who are nearby report never hearing any cries of pain or for help nothing that would alert them to anything going on in the other room.

Some victims do exhibit burns on their bodies which start a small marks but grow larger and more painful and even some persons do have odd occurrences of smoke coming from their bodies.

There are many theories of what causes some people to spontaneous combust while others do not. Some experts believe that alcohol has a lot to do with it while others believe that many of the victims had been overweight and the body had deposits of flammable fat. Still others believed that it was a sign of God as a form of punishment for evil ways. Still other so called experts felt that it was a built up of static electricity that caused these spontaneous combustion events. Still others believed that a persons poor diet could cause a build up of explosive chemicals in ones digestive system. And lastly spontaneous human combustion has been blamed on the body being able to shot circuited somehow causing it to ignite on its own.

Spontaneous human combustion is still an unsolved mystery as no satisfactory explanation has ever been given nor has any conclusive explanation been reported.