wheels Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 'First Irish case' of death by spontaneous combustion http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15032614 A man who burned to death in his home died as a result of spontaneous combustion, an Irish coroner has ruled.It is believed to be the first case of its kind in Ireland. Rather strange, poor old gent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrighty Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 'First Irish case' of death by spontaneous combustion http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15032614 A man who burned to death in his home died as a result of spontaneous combustion, an Irish coroner has ruled.It is believed to be the first case of its kind in Ireland. Rather strange, poor old gent. I thought all these cases, on proper scrutiny, turned out to have rational explanations such as dropping a cigarette, stray spark from a fire etc. Or do people really believe that he's been 'struck down by the devil' or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 I remember a Horizon, QED or Equinox program on it years and years ago. They concluded it was a very slow process where someone's clothes, hair etc catches fire naturally usually from sparks from a fire, but where they are comatosed, the person dies quite quickly - smoke inhalation etc, but the fire then in certain special circumstances (down to how well the room is sealed restricting oxygen flow into the room) continues to smolder. It gets into the fat membrane which feeds the fire, but given its mositure content it remains a very slow burn. The fire isn't large enough to spread but slowly consumes the person, leaving a horrible fatty deposit all over the room, but other than that very little fire damage, apart from the corpse which is found in various stages of incineration. They did experiments using pig carcases! Lovely! So yes my understanding is that its perfectly natural, and not really spontaneous, rather slow acting, and in very special circumstances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Stevens Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 'First Irish case' of death by spontaneous combustion http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15032614 A man who burned to death in his home died as a result of spontaneous combustion, an Irish coroner has ruled.It is believed to be the first case of its kind in Ireland. Rather strange, poor old gent. I thought all these cases, on proper scrutiny, turned out to have rational explanations such as dropping a cigarette, stray spark from a fire etc. Or do people really believe that he's been 'struck down by the devil' or something? Visiting the 35,000 seat Roman ampitheatre at El Djem way out in the Tunisian desert forty years ago I was shown the very many alcoves around the interior walls where the Romans set fire to slaves in order to create night time illumination. Apparently they had rather a large stock of Corinthian peoples spare at the time. But any despised enemy would do. The slaves would burn slowly in the manner of spontaneous combustion...or so it was said... I was also told this was the origin of the "Roman Candle"...but I hae me doots.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gladys Posted September 24, 2011 Share Posted September 24, 2011 I remember a Horizon, QED or Equinox program on it years and years ago. They concluded it was a very slow process where someone's clothes, hair etc catches fire naturally usually from sparks from a fire, but where they are comatosed, the person dies quite quickly - smoke inhalation etc, but the fire then in certain special circumstances (down to how well the room is sealed restricting oxygen flow into the room) continues to smolder. It gets into the fat membrane which feeds the fire, but given its mositure content it remains a very slow burn. The fire isn't large enough to spread but slowly consumes the person, leaving a horrible fatty deposit all over the room, but other than that very little fire damage, apart from the corpse which is found in various stages of incineration. They did experiments using pig carcases! Lovely! So yes my understanding is that its perfectly natural, and not really spontaneous, rather slow acting, and in very special circumstances. I remember that too; after we were fed the possibility of spontaneous combustion, it came as quite a relief that it was pretty unlikely that any one of us would just explode into flame at the drop of a hat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terse Posted September 24, 2011 Share Posted September 24, 2011 On the lunchtime news, this item was immediately followed by an advert for the natural gas conversion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScotsAlan Posted September 24, 2011 Share Posted September 24, 2011 My ex father in law is an ex Met copper. He could never eat toast after being first on the scene at a "spontaneous combustion" in the late 60's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Do the Navan Walk Posted September 25, 2011 Share Posted September 25, 2011 Affers you My posterior is on fire most days but it has more to do with my chrones. Just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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