For this reason, nearby unburnt matches - or any other combustibles for that matter - near a smoldering fire do not a mystery make to a seasoned fire expert. Instead of merely speculating that aliens might have been doing target practice with hapless humans, the authors did attempt to find a scientifically possible cause of the "mysterious" phenomena called Spontaneous Human Combustion, also steering clear of hinting that some paranormal activity might be involved.

But their suppositioning included some rather exotic slants on chemistry and physics, like methane gases generated by an out-of-whack digestive system (so why don't we see exploding cows?), electric "fields" within the body (try to promote that idea to any electrical engineer and watch him laugh out loud), and out-of-the-blue strikes from ball lightning into confined spaces (and have you ever seen ball lightning?), when Occam's Razor should tell you that simpler, more rational explanations would apply if only more were known about each case.

SHC has also occasionally been in vogue with TV scriptwriters. The phenomena was not only discussed during an "X-Files" show, but it also played a role in an unusually silly episode on the normally thoughtful former drama series "Picket Fences", where the mayor went up in a puff of smoke, scorching only the bedsheet on which he had been lying. (For other examples of how Hollywood mistreats fire investigation, click here).

Arthur C. Clarke presented a quasi-scientific Discovery Channel program which outlined a few of the stranger cases of SHC, including the infamous Reeser fire in St. Petersburg (for a more in-depth account of this fire click here). St. Petersburg's present fire chief was interviewed about the Reeser case, but it was noted during the show that not one fire origin and cause investigator was asked about the phenomena. Why not? Maybe it was because they couldn't find one who believes SHC exists. For example, the National Fire Protection Association's (NFPA) Guide for Fire & Explosion Investigations (NFPA 921) specifically states that "Human bodies do not spontaneously combust." (ref: 23.3.6.2)

Though the program didn't answer many questions, one plausible explanation was offered as to how SHC victims manage to burn so thoroughly. One researcher effectively demonstrated on film, using fatty pork wrapped in a cloth, how a body can burn without additional fuel.

A more recent Discovery Channel treatment of SHC was more sensational and far less skeptical, relying heavily on the musings of a layman writer who had a nearly obsessive penchant for the word "mysterious".

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