'Wick fiber effect' in the phenomenon of people burning themselves into ash

Scientists over the past centuries still have headache to find the correct solution for the phenomenon of self-igniting people.

The world once recorded many mysterious cases of self-igniting (SHC) people, when many ordinary people while sleeping suddenly caught fire and burned to ashes. Furniture around the victim, except for clothes or seats, is usually intact, making it impossible for experts to find a clear cause of fire.

The phenomenon of people burning themselves into mysterious ash.(Artwork: Grunge).

Italian knight Polonus Vorstius was the first self-igniting case, according to a medical expert Thomas Bartholin. One evening in 1470, while resting and drinking a few glasses of wine, Vorstius suddenly vomited fire, caught fire and was burned to death in front of his parents.

Thomas Bartholin recorded this event in "Historiarum Anatomicarum Rariorum" in 1641, nearly two centuries after the incident. He said, I heard the descendants of Vorstius recount. But many people doubt the accuracy of the story due to the long distance.

One of the most famous SHC cases occurred in 1951, when widow Mary Reeser mysteriously burned to death in her own apartment in St. John. Petersburg, Florida, USA. Reeser is a big fat woman, weighing about 77kg, according to St. Petersburg Times.

The case of the knight Polonus Vorstius spontaneously ignited is still questionable.(Photo: Grunge).

The body and chair she sat on were all burning, leaving only her feet. The ceiling and the high walls were covered in black, but the furniture and the walls underneath had no effect at all. Cass Detective Burgess, who investigated the case, said there were no signs of common flammable substances like ether, kerosene or gasoline.

In 2009, reporter Jerry Blizin, who reported on the case in 1951, turned things around and added new details. Accordingly, the FBI concluded that the amount of fat in Reeser's body was the fuel for the fire to explode. At the fateful evening, Reeser told his son that he would skip dinner to take two sleeping pills. The last time he saw Reeser was when she sat on the couch and smoked.

A puzzling thing makes the experts extremely headache in the case of SHC to burn people who need very high temperatures, from 760 to 1000 degrees Celsius , far beyond the heat that a match, candle or cigarette can create.

Studies conducted by the British Journal of Medicine and Forensic Journal show that cases of suspected SHC have caused the victim's body to burn to ash, only the hands and feet sometimes retain the shape.

Strangely, the furniture around the victim is usually intact, even from flammable materials. A fierce fire with such high temperatures did not make the surroundings catch fire very confusing.

In addition, SHC cases have a few things in common.Victims are often quite older, mainly women with obesity and alcoholism. Their ash is often greasy and very unpleasant. Most of these cases do not have witnesses who directly see the process of self-igniting victims.

"Wick fiber effect"

"Wick effect" is a reasonable explanation for the phenomenon of self-igniting.(Photo: Grunge).

One explanation is widely accepted by experts and suitable for many cases of SHC as " wick fiber effect" . Accordingly, the human body plays a similar role to the body of the candle, while the clothes are like wicks.

When clothes catch fire due to cigarette butts or coal dust from the fireplace, fire will penetrate the skin and burn the fat layer below. The fat gets into the clothes and becomes a continuous fuel source for the fire to burn more violently, creating tremendous heat.

In experiments with pork, the fire of this type tends to rise straight up at a rather slow speed, so the furniture around is almost intact. This also explains why the ash is greasy, which is caused by fat being burned.

"Wick fiber effect" is also suitable for the phenomenon of hands and feet, the parts are almost fat-free, not burned. It also explains why SHC usually occurs in obese people and cannot identify the source of the fire. With such a terrible temperature, the burning objects were burned together with the victim's body.

Other explanations

Although the "wick fiber effect" sounds very reasonable, it cannot explain all SHC cases. Therefore, many other theories have been proposed about the cause of the fire.

Researcher Brian J. Ford said that SHC originates from ketosis , the body's lack of energy and starts burning stored fat, which increases the amount of acetone in the body. Acetone is a flammable compound. Therefore, ketosis is common in alcoholics and dieters under low carb, making the body more flammable.

Many scientists try to find a way to explain the phenomenon of self-igniting people.(Photo: Grunge).

Even, many people make hypotheses that sound irrational. One scientist said that clay rock, a strange scientific phenomenon without clear explanation, caused the phenomenon of self-igniting.

Book author "Ablaze!" , Larry E. Arnold hypothesizes that subatomic particles in the human body are called "pyrotrons" , when stimulated by stress will ignite. However, scientists believe this hypothesis is unfounded.

There are many cases where SHC is so alcohol-related that, in the 18th and 19th centuries, doctors and scientists used to consider alcohol as one of the main causes of spontaneous combustion. Accordingly, alcohol will transform into a gas that causes fire inside the body.

In 1799, a doctor also listed the wines with the highest chance of causing SHC, headed by gin, then brandy, whiskey and rum. However, up to now, there is no evidence to prove this hypothesis.

In 2010, Michael Faherty, a 76-year-old man, died at home in West Galway, Ireland, according to the BBC. Reports showed that the victim's body was completely burned, the floor and ceiling right there were also affected, the rest of the house had no problem. The investigation confirmed that Faherty was turning on the heater, but this was not the cause of the fire.

Dr. Ciaran McLoughlin, who participated in forensic examination, was extremely confused about the cause of death. He consulted many medical documents, talked with experts and conducted some research but still could not find the answer. Finally, he concluded, this is a case of people igniting themselves, without a clear explanation.