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| 'First Irish case' of death by spontaneous combustion |
| 2011-09-24 |
| [BBC] 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. West Galway coroner Dr Ciaran McLoughlin said it was the first time in 25 years of investigating deaths that he had recorded such a verdict. Michael Faherty, 76, died at his home at Clareview Park, Ballybane, Galway on 22 December 2010. Deaths attributed by some to 'spontaneous combustion' are when a living human body is burned without an apparent external source of ignition. Typically police or fire Sherlocks find burned corpses but no burned furniture. An inquest in Galway on Thursday heard how Sherlocks had been baffled as to the cause of Mr Faherty's death. Forensic experts found a fire in the fireplace of the sitting room where the badly burnt body was found had not been the cause of the blaze that killed Mr Faherty. The court was told that no trace of an accelerant had been found and there had been nothing to suggest foul play. The court heard Mr Faherty had been found lying on his back with his head closest to an open fireplace. The fire had been confined to the sitting room. The only damage was to the body, which was totally burnt, the ceiling above him and the floor underneath him. Dr McLoughlin said he had consulted medical textbooks and carried out other research in an attempt to find an explanation. He said Professor Bernard Knight, in his book on forensic pathology, had written about spontaneous combustion and noted that such reported cases were almost always near an open fireplace or chimney. "This fire was thoroughly investigated and I'm left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion, for which there is no adequate explanation," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 Who knew Irishmen were flammable? Although, in retrospect, it is not surprising. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2011-09-24 13:09 |
| #7 Phil_b, My thought was similar, except a good Irishman would never let whiskey stay on the outside of his body. Instead, I believe he let the alcohol content rise in his entire body to a combustable level, and the rest is history. |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2011-09-24 11:51 |
| #6 Can't explain twobyfours reference but Skeptoid did an episode on the topic for the curious: skeptoid |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2011-09-24 11:09 |
| #5 In this case I'll suggest he spilled a rather large glass of whiskey over himself. Spark from the fire. The rest is self explanatory. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2011-09-24 09:09 |
| #4 Not always. Nearly happened to one man while driving a car. He felt a burning sensation inside his thigh. He was on a road near a creek, so he stopped, jumped out of the car and ran to the creek and sunk his leg into cold water. That seemed to alleviate the problem. He then drove to a hospital and they x-rayed him. There was a bright (on film = in reality dark) spot of a size of a plum close to his thigh bone. No one knows how that works. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2011-09-24 06:03 |
| #3 I did a google images search and it does seem like a bunch of the instances are very near a fireplace. |
| Posted by: Uneamble Spegum1476 2011-09-24 02:58 |
| #2 Due to 'too rapid' re-entry friction from an out-of-body experience, no doubt. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2011-09-24 01:42 |
| #1 Another unfortunate victim of Jheri curl abuse. |
| Posted by: Eohippus Phater7165 2011-09-24 00:54 |