1980, November: Darlington Woman’s Combustion

The Legend:

Sometime in November, 1980, a 19-year-old woman burst into flames in the bathroom of a disco in Darlington, Durham, England. She survived the experience, but required skin grafts. It was theorized her cotton dress was very flammable, but tests proved it was not.

Unreliable

        This is the first listing of this incident in Anomalies, and therefore will require more research to confirm it. This is especially true because the above comes from Jenny Randles and Peter Hough's 1992 book, Spontaneous Human Combustion; this book gives almost no sources for the accounts it relates, most often attributing them to "Author's own investigation" and "Historical archives traced and researched"... which essentially means "Just trust us." In this case, the above is attributed to Fortean Times magazine, but we are not told a date or issue number. For this reason, this account is marked as both "Unreliable" and "Investigate;" I will add new information as I get a chance to dig further.