Spontaneous Human Combustion:
Known Reports in Chronological Order
"Spontaneous Human Combustion" is the name given to those events in which humans appear to have burst into flames with no external ignition source; in short, events in which people appear to have unnaturally self-ignited. The known claims of evidence for Spontaneous Human Combustion are listed here in chronological order.
Most reports are very brief, both in evidence and known study; the more detailed cases are highlighted with a tag (
), and are listed in Anomalies as full articles unto themselves. In addition, cases that have been shown to be scientifically explainable (and therefore not examples of spontaneous combustion) have been marked with an 'X' (
), cases that are mysterious but definitely not examples of spontaneous combustion are marked with a dash (
), and cases that currently do not have enough details to allow them to be scientifically examined (usually missing a victim's name, place of occurrence, and/or date of occurrence) have been marked with a question mark tag (
). Please note: only a case that can be scientifically examined can be shown to be scientifically unexplainable... so cases with the question mark cannot yet be considered proof of spontaneous combustion; they can, however, be considered good entertainment.
| Dates Unknown or Unsure: | ||
| 1468-1525 |  | Polonus Vorstius' Fiery Death |
| 16?? | | English Woman's Fiery Death |
| pre-1654 | | Deposition to the Academic Senate of Copenhagen |
| pre-1654 | | French Woman's Fiery Stomach |
| pre-1673 | | French Fiery Death |
| pre-April 4, 1731 | | Countess Cornelia di Bandi's Fiery Death |
| pre-1809 | | Mrs. Peacock's Fiery Death |
| pre-1835 | | Hannah Bradshaw's Fiery Death |
| pre-1841 | | Dr. Reynolds' Report |
| pre-1847 | | Frenchman's Fiery Death |
| pre-1852 | | Marie Bally's Fiery Death |
| 1853? | | German Combustion |
| pre-1854 | | English Woman's Fiery Death |
| pre-1861 | | A.B.'s Fiery Death |
| 1866? | | Englishman's Fiery Corpse |
| pre-1870 | | Unnamed Woman's Fiery Death |
| 1950's | | London Combustion |
| pre-1976 | | Englishman's Fiery Death |
| pre-1976 | | Reynold's News' Report |
| pre-1976 | | Building Contractor's Combustion |
| pre-1989 | | Dr. Gee's Investigation |
| pre-1989 | | Madge Knight's Burns |
