WEBVTT - Spontaneous Human Combustion 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.840 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.240 My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Julie Douglas. Julia, 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:18.279 you have do you ever just said? At home and you're, 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:20.680 you know, you're maybe you're reading a book, maybe you're watching, 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.200 you know, a little TV, staring at the window, rocking chair, 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:27.120 in your rocking chair, and and you shut feeling a 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.480 little warm, and you suddenly think, what if I burst 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:35.040 into flames right now? What if I spontaneously come busted? 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:38.839 I actually have had these thoughts before, and not necessarily 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:40.680 in a rocking chair, but it's one of the rocking 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:43.480 chair does seem like be appropriate place to spontaneously It does, 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:45.280 and you guys will all see why by the end 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:47.680 of this podcast why a rocking chair really fits well 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.919 into this scenario. But yeah, I mean, this is one 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:54.000 of those things. I've got a irrational fear of spontaneous 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:58.520 fire in general. And I remember which is a good 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.440 thing to be afraid of? Yeah, Fosters and you know 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:04.399 you name it, um, But I remember seeing pictures of 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:07.120 the spontaneous human combustion I of as a teenager and 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.960 being like, Wow, this is awful and wonderful all at 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:13.880 the same time. I had a similar experience with it 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:16.400 because I feel like I either saw it on Unsolved Mysteries, 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:19.080 which did a great job about creeping me out or 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:23.440 or enthralling me about various paranormal things. Um, because Robert 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:27.120 Stack's voice was so you know, authoritative no matter what 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:30.319 he's talking about, aliens or or people burning up. Uh. 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:32.320 And then also like there was like a little book 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.760 I got in uh, like in the checkout line at 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:38.399 a grocery store for some reason, to avoid a human 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:43.080 spontaneous It was just like a condensed tone of all 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:46.679 sorts of paranormal scary things. I had something like that. 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.240 It was like an oddities thing. Yeah yeah. And it 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:52.200 had of course human spontaneous combustion, which is completely odd. 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:55.520 It's a weird thing, and it's back in the news 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.200 at least it has been this fall in September of 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:00.960 two thousand eleven, and Irish corps Er declared that the 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:05.920 death of one Michael Flaherty. Flaherty was caused by spontaneous 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:09.720 human combustion and that was actually the first instance of 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:13.320 it in Ireland. It's I was reading the articles about this, 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.160 and and none of the articles actually that I read 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:19.519 were actually poking fun of the situation. But there is 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:21.720 sort of a sense of the guy saying, I don't 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:23.680 know what it is because it spontaneous human combustion. It's 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:26.320 kind of like saying, we don't know who the murder is, 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:28.919 but I suspect it was magic because it was either 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:33.160 human spontaneous combustion. Yeah. I don't know if that's not 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:36.320 really irish, but yes, I totally get you're saying that. 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:39.079 All those articles seemed to see just be him throwing 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.400 his hands up in the air and saying, Okay, it's 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:46.480 got to be human combustion. So now, I are you 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.000 about to share more about this particular story. Well, I 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:51.960 was just gonna say that it's probably worth mentioning that 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.440 it was so odd to the corner because you know, 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:56.680 here he has a seventy six year old man found 0:02:56.720 --> 0:03:00.560 in his home, and uh, the damage was to his body, 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.160 which was totally burned, the ceiling above him and the 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:06.200 floor beneath him, and there was no other evidence of 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:09.080 a fire. There was no foul play. There was a 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:11.359 fire source, but it was a fireplace in the next room. 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:14.600 So that's why the corner perhaps just threw up his 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:18.200 hands and said spontaneous human combustion. Oh well, I ran 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:22.080 across another story from from two thousand eleven, and this 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:26.079 one was out of San Francisco, and it was reported 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.800 by CBS five. Uh, their their lead is great. A 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:33.040 man was hospitalized Wednesday evening with life threatening third degree burns. 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:34.520 All right, well, I mean that's not funny, but you 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.920 know after somehow catching fire inside of San Francisco porn store, 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:42.400 authorities told CBS five. So, so, basically, police officers were 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:44.720 on the street and they saw a flaming man come 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.600 run out of the shop suddenly, and there were firefighters 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:50.080 like a block away, so they able to come over 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:54.040 and extinguish the flames. But here's another line from there, 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:56.720 said arson investigators said it was not exactly clear how 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.160 the man caught fire. Police indicated he had apparently been 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.400 watching videos in private booth at the adult arcade when 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:07.920 the fire ignited. Well that is that is some powerful 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:12.720 porn perhaps, or as we have found out before, there's 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:18.240 very rare instances of pyromaniacs having to start fires in 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:22.840 order to reach a sexual climax. So maybe he was 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:25.240 like you know that the one out of I don't 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:27.840 know two million people that that needs to do that. 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:33.000 So he's like sexy firefighter film check, um, oily rags 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.400 and uh and a torch check. I'm ready to go, 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:39.320 and then he set himself off that or really powerful 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.799 porn right yeah. Or spontaneous human combustion really does exist, 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.400 and that's what we're going to talk about today. Um 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:50.200 does it? Big question mark? Yeah? And before we you know, 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.200 we we've we've started off with these cases, if you will, 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:57.400 of of of alleged spontaneous human combustion. But but now 0:04:57.440 --> 0:04:59.600 we're gonna take a step back and we're gonna look 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:05.760 at spot spontaneous combustion. Can it happen? Yes, spontaneous outside 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:09.480 of humans definitely occurs. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, our senior 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:12.640 video producer roxand sent it's a really interesting article about 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:17.599 pistachios and apparently they will spontaneous combusted the drop of 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.720 a hat because especially when they're packed really tightly for 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:23.919 shipping because I have to remain cool and dry. But 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:27.000 because they have such a large that content makes them 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.880 really flammable. So when they're packed that densely, um, they 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:35.480 can actually begin to heat themselves. Um, you know, the oil, 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:38.960 the postastia oil will start to self heat, causing spontaneous 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:42.400 human combustion. So this is really like struck fear into 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:46.080 the heart of pistachio shippers. Yeah, I had no idea. 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:49.279 Postachios were always like a Christmas time sort of treat 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:53.320 in in my household, and I never considered the possibility 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:56.279 that they might explode. But in the previous podcast, I 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:58.000 was mentioning how I wasn't sure of what I was 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:01.560 going to get my uncle Craig for Christmas because I 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.679 drew his name. But but here, here are two things 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:09.600 to consider. A he has an irrational fear of unexploded ordinance, okay, 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:12.200 and and lives in the US. So it's like, it's 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.200 not like he lives in Bosnia or this is good 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.560 or South Asia or anything. Uh. And but then the 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:21.279 about the only thing on his wish list that that 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:24.159 I'm thinking about getting is mixed nuts in the shell. 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:27.760 So I'm thinking a tightly packed bag of the statuos 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:30.480 in the shell with a copy of that article Rock 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:35.400 sand Sinus. Well, just to throw him into full blown PTSD, right, yeah, well, no, 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:38.480 just a happy alidays. You make it sound meaner than 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:40.840 it is. But well, okay, I guess that you are 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:44.840 maybe trying to educate him flash scary. It would be 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.120 a learning slash snack experience. And we know that fear 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:50.960 has a really important role in learning, right, Yeah, So 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:55.800 there you go. Uh, I've um, you don't have to 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:59.000 get me a present this year, so don't worry about that. 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:03.600 But there are other stances. Piles of hay or straw y. Yeah, 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:08.680 they've been known to to spontaneous, spontaneously combust when they decomposed. 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:13.840 So the bacteria inside them orchestrates that decomposition process, and 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.680 that can generate enough heat to kindle a spark and 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:19.160 then poof which I actually saw the other day. My 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.320 my neighbor had a compost pile that was smoking really 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:24.160 yeah yeah, and I was like, hey, head's up, and 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.040 they were like, hey, that's pretty normal, and I was like, 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:28.680 all right, so just check in. You know, I didn't 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:30.360 want my neighbor's house to burn down because of a 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:32.840 pile of leaves um. And then of course the pile 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:37.240 of oily rags which you have mentioned, and and you'll 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.320 see this warning on various like varnishes and what have you, 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.480 where they'll say like, don't leave, don't leave the the 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.200 oil rags unattended after you do this, because it may 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:48.320 set fire to itself. Yeah, because what we're talking about 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:52.679 here is that oxygen is meeting an inflammatory agent and 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:54.680 then there there has to be a spark, right, which 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:58.720 sometimes can happen naturally, like, for instance, the pile of rags. 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:02.160 You can't start You can't start a fire without a spark, 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:07.000 Is that right? Is that what the boss said? Um? No, 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:14.760 without those there? Yes? Okay, good, he was right. Let's 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:18.040 just chat chat fact checking my basic physics with with 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:21.600 the boss. Well, yeah, you have to so mean when 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.560 we do talk about spontaneous human combustion, what what really 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:28.120 are we talking about? Um, well, it's it's kind of 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:30.120 like that case and not so much the case with 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:34.160 the dude running flaming out of the adult store, because 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:37.280 that's more just like a dude on fire. Uh. Spontaneous 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.199 human combustion as as we typically encounter it, we're talking 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.560 somebody who's been burnt down like to the bone or 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.360 through the bones, but then maybe like an entire arm 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.240 will be just laying there on the floor next to them. Yeah. 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:55.360 It was identified as early as or the alleged phenomenon 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:58.480 by a doctor Trail who claimed he had recently discovered 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.480 a peculiar kind of oil in the human blood, which 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:04.800 is highly inflammable. This oil is chiefly observed in the 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:08.079 blood of persons who have been addicted to drinking oddent spirits. 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:11.880 It is probably that this discovery may tend to elucidate 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:18.719 the hitero explosion inexplicable phenomenon of the spontaneous combustion of 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:21.160 human bodies. So even back in the day, they were 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.360 seeing these instances that were very odd. Again, there are 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:29.079 certain hallmarks that we'll talk about that make people quite quizzical. Right, 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.199 it will be someone like they're burned in their rocking 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:34.000 chair and the chair is still there, but their their 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:36.839 bones were incinerated, right, which is weird because you've got 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.920 a wood chair, a wooden chair that is not affected 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:43.640 at all. Right, the room will be fine, the the 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:45.760 you know, the the chair, the bed will be fine. 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.200 There will be like a legrant arm that isn't burnt. 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.440 And for all. I mean, if if you were just 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:54.640 to open the door to all sorts of science fiction possibilities, 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:58.520 it looks like someone was like blasted with a sci 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:01.360 fi ray gun or a heat gun or something, because 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:03.839 it just like just cores right through the aliens. Again, 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:07.360 but we know it's it's not that visiting the elderly. 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:10.200 So the question arises, you know, what what could be 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:14.880 going on? And there are there are various theories, um 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:18.679 and and a number of these theories do relate to, uh, 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:22.400 to some of these phenomenon we were talking about, for instance, 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:27.480 methane um methane building up inside the intestines and then 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:31.959 ignited by enzymes. But what's the problem with that. The 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:35.040 problem is that, as you had said before, this is 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.720 largely the parts of the body that were largely affected, 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:40.440 or the skin and the bones, and not the internal organs. 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.680 So that would clue use into an external source of 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:48.480 the fire rather than internal. Yeah. And and again just 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:49.880 just to give you an idea of like what it 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.080 takes to incinerate a body, because most of the most 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:55.559 of the body is not flammable. I mean, that's that's 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:58.800 the thing. We're so much water, We're not pistachios. Yeah. Yeah, 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:00.880 there's not a lot in this the can that can 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.280 actually go up in flames. Uh. And if you even 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:07.200 in like a crematoria, the temperatures are generally like seven 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:11.040 thousand centigrade and that doesn't even destroy the bones. So 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:13.880 some of these other theories static electricity, the idea that 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:16.400 if you were walking around your carpeted home, I guess 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:18.719 we're just like if you didn't leave and you had 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:20.720 socks on you and you were just walking around in 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:23.199 circles and in circles and circles, you could eventually build 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.360 up enough of a static charge to incinerate your body, 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:28.800 which just seems soles. I mean, you don't need to 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:30.760 go out and like build a hat out of like 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:35.040 you know, dryer sheaves. It just seems a little bit silly. Yes, um. 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.440 And and then there's a sort of an extrapolation of 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:40.640 this by a guy named Larry Arnold, who is a 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.920 self proclaimed expert on the subject and author of a blaze, 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:46.760 and he claims that there's a new sub atomic particle 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:50.840 called the pyratron that has the power to ignite the body. 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:53.880 Oh yeah, but that of course that's none of that 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:56.520 is Is it all proven? Right? That's the problem with that. 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:58.319 I mean, it is kind of interesting. It kind of 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:00.720 leads into the idea, you know, the whole equals mc 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:03.240 square thing about matter and energy, and well, what if 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:06.200 some or all of the matter in our body were 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:10.280 transferred into into energy? Right? Of course, the problem with that, 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:14.760 and this is from Dr Stephen Novella, who's a Yale 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:17.280 neurologists and founder of the New England Skeptics Society. He 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:19.719 points out that the mass of a single person, if 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:23.040 entirely converted to energy, would be much more than a 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:26.920 few hydrogen bombs. So so even if there there was 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:31.000 some sort of situation with matter transferred into energy inside 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:32.840 the human body, it would have to be just a 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:36.960 minute amount of mass, like a very minimum amount. Well, 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:39.840 there's no process really that could kick start this in 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:41.640 the first place. I mean, there's not even a theory 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:44.320 for this. So it's just kind of a hey, maybe 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.040 it's this is particle. But if it were to happen 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:51.080 to your point would be that we are basically a 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.640 bunch a bunch of walking hydrogen bombs right ready to 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:56.800 go off, right if if there was some sort of 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:00.160 process to actually kick that into demotion. Right, And then 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:04.280 you also have to consider that kids playing with methane, 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:07.680 and when I say methane mean parts and lighters like 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:12.360 you would see so many more UH instances a spontaneous 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.160 human combustion among twelve year old kids. And and remember, 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:18.720 not everybody produces large quantities of methane. Remember our our 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:22.199 NASA UH one of our podcasts, we maybe it is 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:24.360 the wearwolf theory. We're talking about the ideal human body 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:27.680 to go into space, and NASA found that that. You 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:29.720 know that there are certain individuals that produce much less 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:32.319 methane and some individuals who produced no methane. Right, we 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:34.559 find the face of the whole methane building up in 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.400 your intestines theory, right, But there is one theory that 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:41.119 seems to hold true, at least in terms of explaining 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.040 how someone might burn the way that they do um 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:46.360 with their extremities intact and with the rest of the 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:50.199 room completely intact. You're talking about the whip theory, believe. Yeah, 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:52.160 this is one of the more interesting theories and definitely 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:55.559 more interesting than things like balls of lightning or or 0:13:56.480 --> 0:14:00.480 aliens or aliens or psychic phenomena. And this is basically 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:04.679 the idea that the human body can, under certain circumstances, 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.360 be like a big fat candle. So yeah, I think 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:09.920 of a candles. You know, the wax ignites the wick 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.480 and keeps it burning right because it's got the fat, 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.880 and that fat continues to allow the candle to burn 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.880 very slowly. So essentially the human body could do the 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:23.120 same thing. Yeah, and there was there was actually BBC 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:26.200 sponsored an experiment in ninety eight, and it was pretty 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:27.760 great when I found It's like, normally I would not 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:29.680 be like, hey, there's a study from ninety eight and 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:31.640 be proud of it, but it was. It's a pretty 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:33.840 cool experiment they put together, and if you look it 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:36.000 up online, it's like still like there. I don't I 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:39.120 don't understand how some websites do their updates because they're 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:42.160 parts of the BBC website that have never changed, like 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:45.280 they're still this this ancient web design and it's pretty 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:47.080 awesome because you feel like you're actually going back in 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:49.400 time when you look at these. So anyway, this involved 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:54.120 this guy, Dr John Dehan of California Criminalistic Institute, and uh, 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:56.840 they did what anyone would do when testing out the 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:58.720 wick theory. They took a they used to pig in 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:02.680 a blanket, by which I don't mean a tasty hot 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:06.720 dog or vegan hot dog wrapped in some literal literally 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:08.760 a pig in a blank literally, it was a dead 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:11.440 pig and a blanket. Yeah, why did why did they 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:13.280 used to pick? Because I thought this really interesting. I 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:16.160 mean they obviously it's something that's much more ethical than 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:18.600 using human right, right, right. That was the number one 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:20.560 that they couldn't get the okay from the BBC to 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:23.560 burn any actual people. But also I believe it has 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:28.120 to do with like the the amount of fatah to human. Yeah, coomfortable. 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:30.560 You know the human that catches on fire and here's 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:33.560 a pig more or less. Um. So they wrapped this 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:36.440 dead pig in a blanket and then a small amount 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:41.440 of petrol was poured on gasoline and uh, after five 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:44.640 hours of continuous burning, they found that the bones were 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.440 in fact destroyed. And Dr Dehannon said, the sort of 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:50.040 damage here is exactly the same as that from supposed 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:54.360 spontaneous human combust. Okay. So so just like the candle, 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:59.200 like a tallow or candlewax, it allowed the burning to 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:03.400 happen in distant way over consistently slowly. But you know, 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:04.960 not in a way it's going to burn the rest 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:06.240 of the house down, Not in a way that's going 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:09.760 to necessarily gather a lot of attention. Yeah, it's just 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.320 it also explains why only part of the body, the 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:14.440 part that you're rich and fat, burns away, one of 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:17.320 the rest stays intact. Yeah all right, So what what 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.360 do all of these cases have in common? Well, they 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:23.640 all know each other, they did not, and they were 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:28.040 not all huge drinkers. Right that the special human oil 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:33.640 theory exactly exactly. Um. The victim is almost always completely consumed, 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.560 usually inside his or her home. Okay, so it usually 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:40.360 happens since someone's home. A sweet smoky smell usually accompanies 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:45.240 the incident. It's like like barbecue. Yes, I mean it's 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:48.680 a little distasteful, but yes, like barbecue. Um. And then 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:51.960 the extremities often stay in intact, which we've talked about. 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.440 So the head and torso maybe completely charred, but the hands, feet, 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:57.320 and legs are left unburned. And that's what you see 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.960 in on some of those iconic photos, you know, someone's 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.680 shoes with smoke coming out of them. Um. There are 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:05.960 no other signs of fire in the room other than 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:10.199 a greasy residue sometimes left on fronture and walls. Okay, 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:14.440 and not all spontaneous human combustion victims simply burst into flames, 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:16.840 some developed strange burns on their body which have no 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:21.000 obvious source, or they emanate smoke from their body when 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:23.439 no fire is actually present. Should be a little bit 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:25.159 weird to look down in your arm and see, you know, 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:29.440 smoke curling up right. Um. So that's what they all 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:31.960 share in common, and that is why it has been 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:35.320 such a interesting subject for a lot of people, because 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:38.320 that's very those are weird things, right. But I do 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:40.840 think that the wig theory in the pig in the 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:45.679 blanket experiments actually helped to support that. Uh. And it's 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:49.080 also key to note here that that that the throwing 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:51.960 them with this pig in the blanket idea is the 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:56.240 is the notion that it's probably not spontaneous. But the 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:58.680 spontaneous is just sort of I mean, it's kind of like, well, 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:00.760 we don't know what the causes, so must be magic 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:03.480 kind of a deal, where in reality, there are a 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.280 number of things in any given household that could potentially 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.080 set something upon. Right at issue here the heart of 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:11.080 them out it really is is it coming from an 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:13.840 external source or is it coming from an internal source? 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:18.320 And obviously is we've kind of discussed um, you know today, 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:22.400 it's not coming from inside. There's no pyrotron. Really, that's 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:27.200 igniting us. Um. Many of the cases have had victims 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:30.280 who were smoking, and a good amount of them have 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.520 been had been drinking as well, So it stands to 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:37.960 reason that they fell asleep while smoking, the embers fell 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:41.919 on them, ignited their clothes, and then poof, they become 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:45.160 a human candle. Um. So you know, that's not all 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:48.000 of them explained away in such a neat fashion, but 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:50.320 a good many of them share that sort of common right, 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:53.400 and the individual is elderly, as a number of cases are. 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:56.360 I mean, you confirm or infirm in some way. I mean, 0:18:56.440 --> 0:18:59.120 you can easily you can more easily imagine that happening 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:02.600 where they they're smoking or whatever, they catch the thills 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.480 on fire and stop dropping roll was not necessarily is 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:08.080 easily achieved. Yeah, So I mean, you know, you can 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:10.080 you can see when you lay it out that way, 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:12.240 you can see that it's pretty obvious that it probably 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:14.719 is coming from an external source. And even in the 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:16.600 case of the man, the seventy six year old man 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:19.080 who had a fire in the next room but no 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:22.040 fire source where he was sitting and where he died, 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:24.840 it's very possible that he could have gotten up, stoked 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:28.159 the fire and somehow ignited a piece of his clothing 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:30.560 without even knowing sat back down. I mean, you know, 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:33.320 it's it's a little bit hard to explain any of 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:37.720 these away, but um, to me, it seems a little 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:41.159 bit more at least practical to to look at it 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:43.760 more as an external phenomenon. And I just keep coming 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:45.080 back to that, right, it's got to be some sort 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:49.320 of external thing. And in fact, we recently circulated in 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:51.560 the office something called an I A which is our 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:55.080 initial approach for when we try to tackle a subject. 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:57.639 It's like, Hey, I'm writing an article about such and such. 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.800 Here's what I'm thinking. Do you guys have any other tidbits? Yeah, yeah, 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.080 pile it on. And so I know I'm sharing the 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:05.520 secret sauce here of what we do. But um, but 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:08.240 I'm telling you because one of the things that went 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:09.919 out one of the I A s was Hey, what 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:14.000 were some of the craziest headlines of because we're gonna 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:16.280 do some sort of round up article about that. And 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:18.080 one of them that made the list or actually I 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:20.280 don't know if it's made the list, but was put 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:26.000 out there was woman's face ignites during UH standard procedure, 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:29.720 standard operating um procedure that she was having. I think 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:32.199 she was having maybe some moles removed or something. So 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:35.000 what happens basically because they're using so many instruments in 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:38.720 the operating room now that have you know, electricity that 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:43.000 they were you know, sometimes you know, something ignites. Unfortunately 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.159 was this woman's face. And um, it's pretty awful to 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:48.359 have to go into for something like that and come 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:53.040 out pretty burned. But again, here's another case where fire happens, 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:55.840 and you usually have to have a source for the 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.760 ignition right right like like like the boss said, so 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:04.320 here you go, there you can. Well, hey, speaking of 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:07.080 spontaneous combustion, I think I see the robot coming over 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:10.560 here with a smoking piece of listener mail. Hello Arnold. 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:14.760 All right, So here we hear from the Jim and 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.679 Jim rites and it says, I just finished your fire podcast. 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:21.000 So he's talking about the Pyromania podcast that came out 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:23.080 a couple of weeks ago. He says, I don't have 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:25.360