Spontaneous Human Combustion. Somebody living alone gets drunk/has stroke/heart attack spills alcohol/perfume on themselves and a cigarette ignites a fire. The body slumps onto carpet and the body fat together with clothing and carpet form a candle wick effect and a small high temperature fire burns for some hours. Parts of the body with low fat levels (e.g. lower legs) often remain unburned. It’s a simple experiment to do with a pig carcass.
Spontaneous Human Combustion. Somebody living alone gets drunk/has stroke/heart attack spills alcohol/perfume on themselves and a cigarette ignites a fire.
Ignition via an accellerant and an existing fire seems to make a lie of the ‘Spontaneous’ part of the name! Which isn’t to say “Human Candles’ don’t sound kind of awesome in their own right.
Spontaneous Human Combustion. Somebody living alone gets drunk/has stroke/heart attack spills alcohol/perfume on themselves and a cigarette ignites a fire. The body slumps onto carpet and the body fat together with clothing and carpet form a candle wick effect and a small high temperature fire burns for some hours. Parts of the body with low fat levels (e.g. lower legs) often remain unburned. It’s a simple experiment to do with a pig carcass.
Ignition via an accellerant and an existing fire seems to make a lie of the ‘Spontaneous’ part of the name! Which isn’t to say “Human Candles’ don’t sound kind of awesome in their own right.
The mystery was its spontaneity. Once you realize that all the cases had an accelerant and ignition source, it’s no longer mysterious.