this is a preety lengthy post so, if u dont like reading, just walk away...

For well over a century, some have claimed
that people can suddenly and inexplicably
explode into a ball of fire. The
phenomenon is called spontaneous human
combustion (SHC), and it has been
described in many popular books on mysteries and the unexplained. Though the term "spontaneous human
combustion" is of fairly recent vintage, it
was a rare-but-real concern to many in the
1800s. In fact, there are nearly a dozen
references to people bursting into flames in
pre-1900 fiction. The most famous example is Charles Dickens's 1853 novel "Bleak
House," in which a character explodes into
fire, though the phenomenon can also be
found in the works of Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Washington Irving and others. In modern times, SHC has appeared in movies and
on television shows, including "The X-Files," and it's even, sort of, the super-power of
Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, in "Fantastic Four" comic books. Spontaneous combustion theories Fires do not typically start on their own. When investigators search for the cause of forest
fires, they don't assume that the flame ignited itself. Rather, they usually suspect that a
careless camper or a lightning strike caused it. However, many things can self-ignite without
exposure to flames, under the right circumstances, including coal dust, piles of compost and
used oily rags. But it's a whole different matter to claim that people can suddenly burst into flames for no
apparent reason. There is no doubt that bodies can burn; crematoriums routinely reduce
the human body to ashes in the course of a few hours. The mystery of SHC lies in the
supposedly strange circumstances under which victims burst into flames. Typically, the story
goes, there is no obvious source of ignition, no open fires nearby that might set the person
aflame. Furthermore, the victims are killed, and not, for example, only partly burned on one arm or a leg; SHC is fatal. Some claim that burning often seems to begin in the chest or
stomach area, leaving the grisly remains of legs and hands intact. Others claim that the
furniture and floors under and surrounding the victims (including even their clothing)
remain mysteriously unburned. A closer look Some of these popular claims are simply wrong. For example, there are many photographs
of supposed SHC victims that clearly show extensive burning and damage to the clothing
and surroundings of the burned person. It's also important to understand a bit of fire
forensics: many fires are self-limiting; that is, they put themselves out naturally because they
run out of fuel. Though the public often sees uncontrolled fires completely engulfing and
burning down entire rooms and buildings, fires are unpredictable. It is quite possible, for example, for only a rug, bed, or sofa to catch fire without spreading to the rest of the room.
Because fires normally burn upward instead of outward, there is nothing paranormal or
strange about finding a victim in one part of a room burned to death while the rest of the
room has little more than smoke damage. What about the source of ignition? What could possibly cause people to suddenly burst into
flames? A century ago, it was blamed on intemperance and even God's wrath: most victims
were assumed to be drunkards who had saturated their cells with alcohol. In the 1970s, a
quasi-Freudian explanation came into vogue suggesting that a person's depressive
emotional states could somehow cause him or her to become enflamed. Others have
suggested that sunspots, cosmic storms, gas-producing intestinal bacteria, or even a buildup of the body's supposed "vibrational energy" may be to blame. Yet all these explanations are pseudoscientific, and there is no evidence for any of them. Our
bodies are about 60 percent to 70 percent non-flammable water, and the simple fact is that
there is no physical or medical mechanism by which a person could possibly self-combust.
If people truly could suddenly burst into flames without being anywhere near an open
flame, presumably there would be examples that have occurred while the victim was
swimming, in a bathtub, or even scuba diving. Yet those cases do not exist. Real-life cases Only about a dozen claimed real-life cases of SHC have been investigated in any detail.
Researcher Joe Nickell examined many "unexplainable" cases in his book "Real-Life X-Files"
and found that all of them were far less mysterious than often suggested. Most of the victims
were elderly, alone and near flames (often cigarettes, candles, and open fires) when they
died. Several were last seen drinking alcohol and smoking. If the person is asleep, intoxicated, unconscious, infirm or otherwise unable to move or put
the flames out, the victim's clothes can act as a wick (most people spend most of their time
wrapped in flammable clothing made up of cottons and polyester blends). The flames draw
on the body's fat (a flammable oil very near the skin's surface which combines with the
burning clothing) to fuel the fire. There is also a rare medical condition called Stevens-Johnson syndrome that, in extreme
cases, may be mistaken for a case of an aborted spontaneous combustion. The skin disease,
which can be triggered by a toxic reaction to medications, including antibiotics and
prescription painkillers, causes the appearance of severe burns and blisters, and can be
fatal. If SHC is a real phenomenon, why doesn't it happen more often? There are 7 billion people
in the world, and yet we don't see reports of people bursting into flame while walking
down the street. No one has ever been seen, filmed or videotaped (for example, on a
surveillance camera) suddenly bursting into flames. It always happens to a single person
left alone near a source of ignition. And if some natural (but unknown) mechanism causes the combustion, why would it only
occur in humans? Why wouldn't cows, dogs, elephants, birds or other animals suddenly,
randomly and inexplicably explode in a ball of flames now and then? Even if the
phenomenon is incredibly rare, with billions of animals on the planet, statistically we should
expect to see thousands of them exploding every day all around us. Though there is no scientific evidence that SHC exists, now and then a case makes the news
when officials cannot find another explanation. In 2011, a coroner concluded that Michael Faherty, an elderly Irishman living alone who burned to death in his home in December 2010, may have spontaneously combusted. Though Faherty's body was found a few feet
away from an open, burning fireplace the coroner decided that it had not set him afire. Benjamin Radford, M. Ed., is deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and author
of six books including "Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained
Mysteries." His website is www.BenjaminRadford.com.