Jack Womack's
Strange Book of the Month Club


Ablaze! The Mysterious Fires of Spontaneous Human Combustion

  • by Larry A. Arnold
  • (M.Evans Press, 1995, hardcover, $24.95)

    Spontaneous human combustion (SHC, to the cognoscenti) is possibly the most unnerving Fortean phenomenon, unless you really delight in the idea of suddently bursting into flame while sitting peacefully in your chair one night. Skeptics will more readily believe that the face on Mars is that of Gerald Ford than to even consider the possibility of SHC. Let me say that I, doubter plus ultra, do suspect something like SHC can happen, although I don't believe it happens very often. Just as well, I'd say.

    At 478 elite-typefaced, narrow-margined pages, "Ablaze!" easily surpasses the two older books on this subject (Harrison's "Fire From Heaven," Randles' "Spontaneous Human Combustion") in providing a good introduction to the concept of SHC for the layperson, and an handy encyclopedic catalogue for the advanced student.

    There are problems, of course. Mr. Arnold includes much purely anecdotal, ergo worthless material, as Forteans are too often wont to do. He also, unfortunately, discusses such things as burns caused by UFOs, ley-lines of fiery nature, kundalini, etc., which make it all the easier for the non-believer to shudder, and toss the book aside. He attempts to proffer explanations for the phenomenon (he has a background in mechanical and electrical engineering, not necessarily an advantage here), talking much of what he calls pyrotrons, which he theorizes are subatomic units which cause SHC. Ren ! Calling Ren ! The experienced reader in this field cannot help but recall the number of times Bigfoot has been systematically classified according to Simpson's Principles, and so stifles an understanding chuckle.

    But, as the good Mr. Fort said, let's look at all the data. Mr. Arnold describes several cases at length which even the most skeptical should pause to consider.

    A primary objection to SHC is that under no circumstances, as far as is presently known, can the human body itself generate heat enough to attain a firing point; but consider the case of Robert Bailey of London, England. On Sept. 13, 1967, the Lamberth Fire Brigade, led by Commander John Stacey, found Mr. Bailey lying on a staircase in an abandoned building. Mr. Stacey: [quote] "There was a four-inch slit in his stomach, just about at [the navel] and the flame was emanating from that slit like a blowtorch. It was a blue flame....the flame was actually coming from the body itself, from inside the body. He was burning literally from the inside out." Several fire extinguishers were emptied onto the late Mr. Bailey before the fire was put out. The cause of death, at the inquest hearing, was ruled [quote] "to remain unknown."

    It is regrettable that fascinating cases such as these are nestled, whistle-like, within this mass of great stale lumps of Crackerjack, but with some effort they can be shaken out. Mr. Arnold has not, however, made the reader's job any easier, for he neglects to include an index within the body of the book.

    For those with a taste for forensics, there are photos; not that there is much for you voyeurs de morte to ponder. In most are to be seen nothing more than small, thoroughly burned corners of rooms, and, sometimes, unburned feet or legs emerging from piles of charred ash. There is a photo of the remains of Mr. Bailey, extinguished before he was entirely consumed. Mr. Arnold describes trying to get scientists and others to even take a look at these photos, to little avail.

    Ignore the blurb from Maury Povich. Ignore Maury Povich.



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