Oklahoma cops rake ashes of 'spontaneous combustion' victim
Investigators in Oklahoma are attempting to determine just how a 65-year-old man was largely incinerated while his timber-framed house suffered minimal damage, in what the the local sheriff described as a possible case of spontaneous human combustion. Danny VanZandt was found burning on the kitchen floor in his home between …
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I thought this kind of thing had been explained as a 'wick effect'?
i.e. all the fat in a persons body acting like tallow while clothing acts as a wick?
I remember reading 'The Unexplained' when I was a kid and being completely grossed out by the picture of an SHC victim. Just some legs sticking out of a charred pile.
Re: I thought this kind of thing had been explained as a 'wick effect'?
Yep, the 'inside out candle' theory. Different materials react differently to temperatures and time- in a crematorium, (high temperature, short duration) steel balls are used to crush the bones, whereas lower temperatures sustained for a longer period can reduce bones to ash.
Re: I thought this kind of thing had been explained as a 'wick effect'?
Still got my full set of The Unexplained, perfect condition in binders... and can remember the walking frame and leg sticking out of a burnt floor. May have to dig them for a read...
Re: I thought this kind of thing had been explained as a 'wick effect'?
Yep, the wick effect is so well documented I'm surprised SHC is still treated as a big mystery.
Re: I thought this kind of thing had been explained as a 'wick effect'?
Amazing, it seems that that picture stayed in the minds of everyone who sawit. I can still remember that issue of the Unexplained and the picture itself. Happy memories.
Beer to quench the internal flames
wick effect'?
So remember to wash your clothes every now and then. Might save your life and will definitely save your neighbours live!
Re: I thought this kind of thing had been explained as a 'wick effect'?
Wow! That brings back memories of the early 1980s. The Unexplained I should - erm - explain - not having spontananeously combusted myself.
To bring back another raft of memories, didn't QED do this experiment with a pig carcass wrapped in muslin? My memory isn't what it used to be and it's so very long since BBC1 actually did science programming.
Re: I thought this kind of thing had been explained as a 'wick effect'?
I don't know if it was QED, but yes there was a programme about it where they used a pig to substitute a human. I think the very same photo the rest of the commentators above recall was shown on-screen. I recall the photo, but never read "Unexplained". It may have featueed in Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World too...
Bring back Horizon, QED, and Equinox in all their technical 1970s/80s glory.
I'm off to start a petition.
Re: I thought this kind of thing had been explained as a 'wick effect'?
Oh yes, that thought just came to me when I was reading the article too - I was scared out of my wits for ages afterwards!
Flames, well you know why....
Like other victims of 'spontaneous human combustion', this was an old person who smoked. I'm willing to bet he had health problems, and quite possibly had a drink problem too. The human wick effect is the best explanation I've seen for this phenomenon. Either that, or God has it in for harmless old folk.
this was an old person who smoked. I'm willing to bet he had health problems, and quite possibly had a drink problem too
So, your theory is that the alcohol basically caught fire through his smoking? Works for me :p
That's probably also a good reason not to cremate alcoholics - the risk of combustion..
Nope.
That he passed out after drinking and dropped his ciggy.
SHC = I don't know
Surely all their saying is "I don't know what caused this". Pretending SHC is something specific is pretty poor for an official. The pile of SHC cases are part of the Unexplained file. Unexplained does not mean ALIENS or anything like that.
Re: SHC = I don't know
> Unexplained does not mean ALIENS or anything like that.
But it could be ENORMOUS HEAT generated by a spontaneously nucleating vacuum.
Or politicians.
Re: SHC = I don't know
So how can we ensure around 650 instances of SHC in the Palace of Westminster?
C'mon, you know it makes sense...
Re: SHC = I don't know
"So how can we ensure around 650 instances of SHC in the Palace of Westminster?
C'mon, you know it makes sense..."
Awful idea. There are some lovely floors in there it would be a real shame to damage.
Re: SHC = I don't know
How about 535 cases in the US Congress, both the House of Representatives (435) and the Senate (100)... Then we could start from scratch...
From the article
"You get called to the house where there's a body inside, and you expect the house to be burnt down. This house is intact. There is a stove and ice box within 3 feet from where the body's burning, and the handles are not melted."
Only VanZandt's head, hands and feet survived the fire. Lockhart said of the remains: "You could pour gasoline on somebody and he wouldn't be as badly incinerated."
The wick effect creates a slow, smoldering fire. Not only is the above description consistent with the wick effect, it is entirely expected. And the hands, feet and head, the extremities, don't contain enough fat content to maintain the burning.
In conclusion, why is this even news?
Because its incredibly rare?
Why it's on the register is a little more questionable... (but I presume its in bootnotes or odds and sods.)
@P_O
Further, the hands, feet and head are generally not closely covered by material that makes a good wick.
A good question would be: have there been cases of apparent SHC where the victim had well defined, uncovered areas of their body that did not suffer serious burning, or had a different kind of burn pattern to covered areas? e.g. bare forearms or bare lower legs?
Re: @P_O
Combustion of a "body" has been demonstrated, using a pig carcass dressed in clothes in place of a human body. No mystery.
Hadn't there been one case where one other aspect of SHC was noted, one which wick effect combustion couldn't handle: speed? It'd be interesting to see one where the verified burn time was too short for wick effect combustion.
Register : Was he holding a laptop or smartphone at the time?
By any chance
Did anyone see a 1964 Chevy Malibu in the vicinity?
Re: By any chance
"the life of a repo man is always intense"
Re: By any chance
Ohhh..... you don't want to look in there - the 2 hemispheres are fundamentally opposed
Re: By any chance
"It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes. "
Was there a tv nearby?
There's a well documented cause for SHC:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blipvert
Is that the quiet buzz ..
... of a DRONE that I hear ... with a FRIGGIN LASER ON ITS HEAD ?
The death is easy to explain
What this poor person had done to receive the wrath of the BOFH is harder to find out!
Did he used to be a drummer ?
Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year, it's not just widely reported
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZrqC5LL_oo
It's demoic possession....
And the Hell Fires burned from within.
The simplest explanations are usually correct.
Vampire caught out by roller blind malfunction.
It's Oklahoma so
It's either God or the Devil - the catch-all explanation for anything in the MidWest.
Burning Bodies
Not to be overly gross, but didn't the Nazis have quite a bit of experience with burning human bodies? I seem to recall some reports describing how the bodies of fat people should be intermixed with those of skinny people to achieve complete combustion of the corpses. :-(
Dave
Re: Burning Bodies
Going that far back, we know the Nazis were rather gross, but looking at it strictly from a scientific perspective, the Nazis knew how to run like a well-greased machine. In this case, they knew enough to keep in mind an ideal ratio of tallow (fat) to other body mass.
Time to...
... page Fox Mulder.
Can believe no one used the alien icon yet. There, corrected that.
Paris potential?
Considering her "hotness" could she easily combust?
Re: Paris potential?
Wrong kind of "hotness", and not enough body fat for the wick effect...
I'll take her 'hotness' though...
More grist for the ...
Discovery Channel Zombie shows.
Next they will have it recorded live.
I have a theory
Its a chance mutation in common gut bacteria, which breaks the NADH channel.
This results in sugar being metabolised into simpler sugars and hydrogen , which then spontaneously ignites causing a short lived but devastating (to the victim) fire.
As the heat source is internal the wick effect swiftly takes over, resulting in near complete combustion.
The same effect has been theorised to be the cause of some lithium ion battery fires, however in this case gas being produced by the bacteria as they break down carbon compounds found in the electrolyte eventually ruptures the internal separators and causes a short circuit if it doesen't ignite by itself first.
AC/DC
Re: I have a theory
Should I leave the whisky for a beer.
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