I think that our data relate, not to “spontaneous combustion of human bodies,” but to things, or beings, that, with a flaming process, consume men and women.
— Charles Fort
Of the hundreds of recorded cases of Spontaneous Human Combustion (and the untold number of those suppressed) it is certain there is no single solution to this mysterious phenomenon. No sole causation seems to explain all cases, especially not some of the more bizarre instances. I would like to present such tales, from the furthermost fringe of Forteana and beyond. Such stories that will give cause to wonder whether some paranormal factor underlies these events. Like the fire-spook of folklore, the short-lived sparks of some empyreal super-imagination, or the finger of an invisible titan that dwarfs the rational mind.
He created man from sounding clay like unto pottery
And the jinn did He create of smokeless fire
(Qur’an 55:14-15)
I have in my research of SHC noticed that skeptics will pick and choose which cases to examine, a prejudiced position mirrored in some believers of the paranormal, both blinded by their passions. However, when I find little trace of a case in the skeptic literature, I know it will prove to be insightful. For example, in 1905 the British Medical Journal detailed the demise of Sarah Morley "an elderly woman of intemperate habits”. Authorities forcefully gained entry into a house from which smoke was issuing to find “a small pyramidal heap of broken calcinated human bones”—placed neatly on top was a skull, on the floor in front of a chair that was barely scorched. The bones were dutifully holding their shape, now composed entirely of ash; every particle of soft tissue had been consumed, as if by some fire-fiend… and yet a tablecloth within three feet of the remains was pristine. The furniture of her Hockwold cum Wilton cottage was unblemished by flame. Curiously, the ceiling was scorched, as if the woman had become a pillar of fire.
Charles Fort, in his Complete Books (1941) gives account of many astonishing cases. The first, from the Daily News of 17 December 1904, describes how Mrs. Thomas Cochrane, of Falkirk, was found in a bedroom charred to death: “burned almost beyond recognition”—no outcry—little, if anything else burned—body found, sitting in a chair, surrounded by pillows and cushions.” (This lack of outcry or screams is a marker of SHC, even in cases where the victim is proven to have been sober and conscious)
Another from the Toronto Globe, Jan. 28, 1907— Albert Houck had found the grisly cadaver of his wife, “burned to a crisp,” lying upon a table—no sign of fire upon the table, nor elsewhere in the house. From the New York Sun, Jan. 24, 1930— a coroner’s inquiry, at Kingston, N. Y., into the death of Mrs. Stanley Lake states on the record: “Although her body was severely burned, her clothing was not even scorched.”
Some of the more illuminating cases come to us from those rare survivors of SHC incidents. We can learn from them details that would otherwise remain hidden. There are a variety of reasons why a phenomenon may not submit to strict laboratory protocol, with such mysteries it is wise to listen to those closest to the events. I will present an assembly of their testimony in brief—
A California man, Mr. Jones, quickly erupts into thick, smoky clouds one morning in 1980. His wife is witness to the horror, she recalls: ‘I looked down and smoke was billowing from his arms as though something was on fire. We both started frantically trying to put it out. Suddenly, it was gone.’ The smoke returns once more later that morning on his way to work. Again, there is no flame to be found, only fluffy white fumes filling his car in an instant. In the same manner, a Chicago woman is swiftly swathed in a cascade of smoke surging from beneath her blouse sleeve, on two occasions in the month of May, 1981. In the early 1940s, Paul V. Weekly of Sioux City is ‘awakened by an itching foot’ at 3:30 a.m. Throwing back the bedsheets, he sees his mattress is on fire. He puts it out and returns to sleep, merely to repeat the routine an hour later.
These victims were relatively unscathed when you consider what happened to Jack Angel, who in November 1974 was bafflingly burned while asleep in his motor home on a business trip in Savannah, Georgia. On the night of November 12th he went to sleep only to awake four days later, his right hand a charred and blackened mass. He had suffered smaller burns all over the surface of his body, as if he had gone through some hellish ordeal. There was no trace of the conflagration in the vehicle, and authorities found no cause, even though the vehicle was thoroughly dismantled down to the axles in search of a culprit.
But for those that truly want to sound the depths of this enigma, we must go farther: Simultaneous Spontaneous Human Combustion—