Irish Man's Death Ruled Spontaneous Combustion 224
chrb writes "BBC News is reporting that an Irish coroner has ruled that a dead man was killed by spontaneous human combustion. The controversial finding is a first in Irish history. From the article: '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 in Galway on 22 December 2010. Deaths attributed by some to "spontaneous combustion" occur when a living human body is burned without an apparent external source of ignition.'"
Re:Fire in the fireplace? (Score:5, Interesting)
Except that humans are not particularly inflammable. Sure, the hair burns, and maybe a bit of the skin or clothing, but the huge quantities of water in the body make for a reasonable extinguisher. Perhaps, though, if you're loaded up with lethal levels of alcohol...
Re:any proof of the cause of spontanious combustio (Score:3, Interesting)
As mentioned above, it's often old people lying close to a fireplace.
the second half is drunk fat people, who don't wake up when their clothes are burning. Their fat melts, and the rest of the clothes functions as a wick, replenishing the fire with more melting fat. Why they don't wake up, maybe they're already dead, but that's pretty hard to establish when there's almost no body.
Re:Fire in the fireplace? (Score:4, Interesting)
Spontaneous refers to the lack of any obvious ignition source (except the cigarettes they smoked, or the fire they 'fell asleep' next to - but I digress). If an empty desk in my office were to start smoldering and eventually flames appeared that would be spontaneous combustion as much as if the whole thing suddenly burst into flame.
Re:Fire in the fireplace? (Score:4, Interesting)
Spontaneous does not mean instantly or quickly, it means something happening with no apparent cause or external cause, or someone doing something involuntarily. The action doesn't have to be over quickly.
Re:What garbage non-science! (Score:5, Interesting)
No one is claiming that people randomly catch fire with no external stimulus.
And neither is the BBC. - The coroner brought down the verdict of "spontaneous combustion" that appears in the headline and the BBC correctly defined what that means in the context of a coroner's inquest. They quote the coroner as saying - "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."
Indeed, the headline is misleading (shame on you BBC)
There's nothing misleading about it, unless of course you're looking for an imaginary excuse to bash the BBC.
Unfortunately this sort of thing is common at the BBC now. They have a nasty habit...
Oh, my mistake, you were looking for an imaginary excuse to bash the BBC, carry on.
Re:Fire in the fireplace? (Score:3, Interesting)
This reminds of that time I didn't make a Family Guy reference and people unconsciously thanked me.