Page 73 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Ghosts and Phantoms 53

Broads was engulfed by terrible blue flames
and was nothing but a mound of ash in a mat-
ter of a few horrifying moments. Neither any
member of her family nor the wooden boat
was harmed.
Dr. D. J. Gee, a lecturer in forensic medi-
cine at the University of Leeds, England,
wrote of a case of SHC for the journal Medi-
cine, Science and the Law (5:37–8, January
1965). According to Gee, the victim was a
slim, 85-year-old woman who lived with her
son and daughter-in-law in a ground-floor
apartment. Her family had left the apartment
by 9:30 A.M. on the day she died. Neighbors
had discovered smoke issuing from a kitchen
window and found the smoldering remains of
a human body on the hearth.
When Gee visited the apartment two
hours later, he noticed that the room was
exceedingly warm and the ceiling felt hot. The
paintwork was blistered and the walls and fur-
In order to test Thurston’s theories, Gee Men sifting through the
nishings begrimed by soot. Only a part of the
conducted some experiments of his own. He aftermath of an alleged
wooden edge of the hearth was burned, and a
learned that human fat, when melted in a cru- spontaneous combustion
small section, approximately one foot in diam-
cible, would only burn at a temperature some- incident. (FORTEAN
eter, of the floor was damaged. The rug had not
where near 250 degrees centigrade. However, PICTURE LIBRARY)
been burned, but it was greasy with tiny frag-
a cloth wick prepared in liquid fat will burn
ments of fat. A tea towel lying near where the
even when the temperature of the fat has
body had been found was barely singed, and a
dropped as low as 24 degrees centigrade.
large pile of dry firewood remained unaffected.
Gee also enveloped a layer of human fat in
Gee concluded from his examination that several layers of thin cloth in order to produce
the woman must have suffered a heart attack a roll about eight inches long. Combustion of
and fallen into the fire. The body was ignited at the roll proceeded slowly along its length,
the head by the fire and had been sufficiently burning with a smoky yellow flame and pro-
inflammable to burn to such an extensive degree ducing a great deal of soot. In both of these
without any other source of heat, like a candle. experiments, a fan was arranged so that com-
The draft from the chimney had prevented the bustion would proceed in a direction opposite
spread of flames to other parts of the room.
the flow of air.
In a 1961 study Dr. Gavin Thurston stud-
Gee admitted that these experiments were
ied the literature of SHC and came to a num-
by no means conclusive, but argued that they
ber of conclusions, among them:
supported the theory put forward by Thurston,
1. That under certain conditions a body will which he believed to be the most reasonable
burn in its own fat with little or no damage explanation for the occurrence of spontaneous
to surrounding objects. human combustion.

2. The combustion is not spontaneous, but On April 7, 1969, Grace Walker of Long
started by an external source of heat.
Beach, California, was found on the floor of her
3. This has occurred where the body has living room with burns covering 90 percent of
been in the path of a draft up a chimney her body. Although she was still alive when dis-
from a lighted fire. Oxygenation of the flue covered, she was pronounced dead on arrival at
prevents outward spread of the fire. the hospital. Investigating police officers said

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