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Did an Oklahoma man die of spontaneous combustion?
Sheriff Ron Lockhart of Sequoyah County hasn't yet determined that the death of 65-year-old Danny Vanzandt was definitely a case of spontaneous combustion — but he hasn't ruled it out, either.
"It's very unusual, and it's bizarre, andI can't explain it," Lockhart told KFSM. "I'm not saying this happened. I'm just saying that we haven't ruled it out."
Vanzandt's brother discovered the victim in the kitchen and immediately called 911, according to KFSM. Fire crews found a badly burned body, but no fire damage to nearby furniture or other items. There were no signs of a break-in, a struggle or any other cause of death.
Spontaneous combustion has long been the stuff of legend, but some researchers believe it's possible, though rare. In 2011, a coroner in Ireland ruled that the death of 76-year-old Michael Faherty was the result of spontaneous human combustion, or SHC. [The 9 Most Bizarre Medical Conditions]
For any item to combust, it needs at least two things: a source of ignition and fuel for a fire. In many alleged cases of SHC, the victims were smokers or were near open flames like candles or a burning fireplace.
And the fuel for SHC might come from the victims themselves. Fat will burn, and fatty tissue is often located directly beneath the skin. Clothing or hair can act as candle wicks, according to researcher Joe Nickell, who investigated several such cases in his book, "Real-Life X-Files" (University Press of Kentucky, 2001).
Alcohol abuse is an additional factor in many cases of spontaneous combustion, either because it causes the victims to "pass out" or sleep soundly, or because alcohol itself is flammable. According to KFSM, Vanzandt was a heavy drinker and a heavy smoker who also had "poor hygiene" and no running water in his house at the time of his death.
Investigators also noted that Vanzandt had burn marks in his trachea, indicating he may have inhaled a considerable amount of smoke and carbon monoxide, which can cause a person to lose consciousness and, in high concentrations, can be deadly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Though the term "spontaneous combustion" sounds like a sudden burst of flames, Lockhart told KFSM the body appeared to have burned for up to 10 hours. Vanzandt's remains have been sent to the Oklahoma medical examiner's office in Tulsa, which will determine the cause of death.
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Leave a Comment:
If it was from a lack of bathing and greasy skin mixed with lots of alcohol and smoking, homeless people would be lighting up like a fireworks show.
This guy must have also farted.
AWESOME!!!!
he was dieseling,cop with the lighter said so.
Twigs and ashes scattered round where Danny's ass had hit the ground...
Scientifically, he became a bolide in space. He may have been running and the old grease burned in the oxygen rich atmosphere.
Find one of these in during the Dark Ages or Medieval Europe and no wonder they thought demons were burning people!
they left out the part about the back window of his truck had also been broken out.
http://5newsonline.com/2013/02/18/spontaneous-human-combustion-kills-sequoyah-county-man-sheriff-says/
TFNJ,
"If it was from a lack of bathing and greasy skin mixed with lots of alcohol and smoking, homeless people would be lighting up like a fireworks show."
I used to be a heavy drinker (up to a quart of hard liquor a day) and smoker (2.5 to 3 packs a day), and I never spontaneously combusted or I wouldn't be posting this. I don't drink or smoke at all anymore, but I find that unlikely as a cause of spontaneous combustion. It must be due to something else. Otherwise, I should have gone up in flames long ago.
I read where a guy who never drank alcohol was getting drunk. He went to his doctor, drunk, and the doc did not believe that he never drank. He even smelled like alcohol. Turns out that he ate a lot of spaghetti (carbohydrates) and a specific yeast in his body was turning the spaghetti in his system to alcohol. The rare condition is known as candidiasis. Very weird, but true.
@Mickey-1983943
Then you must be Mickey Rourke, right? What about the drugs, come on now, fess up.
This 'theory' was debunked years ago....shows the intellect of the writer...(yawn)
Maybe he almost became Ghost Rider... almost
twodogsloving,
"What about the drugs, come on now, fess up."
No. I never used drugs other than alcohol. That's enough of a drug.
Oh my God... they killed Danny!
"You Bastards!" Reading this story really fired me up!
Yeah, couple this with the farting on a plane article, and South Park comes to life.
http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/travelkit/let-your-flatulence-fly-scientists-urge-passengers-1C8431651
Earl wuz watchin reruns of the Duke of Hazzard thens after 11 shots of Jack washed down wif Natty Lites he hit a spark on the kitchen light switch. Then WAMMO, he wuz afire and no kin there to put him out.............
The End.
Don't forget that he was eating Slim Jims too.
I always thought 'spontaneous combustion' was a myth of sorts. Spontaneous suggests the fire started with no nearby flame or excellerent. What this article talks about is not spontaneous combustion. Terrible accidents with sad outcomes, but hardly spontaneous.
They dont know. It could have been SHC. Stop trying to ruin it for everybody.
@lastrohm I was thinking the same thing. Spontaneous combustion to me sounds like someone would just errupt into flames for no reason, just burn from the inside out. Alcohol and cigaretts would be accelerants in my opinion. Maybe he drank and was so drunk he stuck the cigarette in the wrong way allowing his mouth to catch fire and straight into his lungs. I know when I drink a shot of that stuff fills up your mouth and lungs fast...makes me choke everytime (I'm a wimp lol). Although you would think when his mouth closed the fire would die out? I don't know maybe that is a really stupid theory....so many questions. Where are Scully and Mulder when you need them?!
"excellerent". HaHaHa.
Someone didn't pay attention in science class. For a substance to combust, you need three things:
Heat, Oxygen, and fuel.
An ignition (or spark) is not a requirement to reach combustion. For instance, if you raise the pressure inside a container, it will cause the temperature to increase, which increases the chances for combustion. When a material reaches it's combustion point, it will burn, whether exposed to flames, sparks, superheated gases or other heated materials.
@Tom... that's exactly what popped into my head when I read that... the ol' triangle.
That may be true, but the temperature/pressure needed for autoignition of any common material would not be encountered in anyone's kitchen. Hell's kitchen, maybe.
Rkaralius,
Perhaps you've heard of chemical reactions causing spontaneous combustion? For instance, putting a very small amount of pure potassium into water will cause heat and flames to be produced.
maybe im too obvious, but isnt the oxygen a given?
we live on planet earth, afterall...it's abundant, and he wasnt trapped in an airless space.
just saying.
Is it really possible? I always thought of it as an urban myth.
It depends on what burns FIRST. If it is proven he burned from the INSIDE out then NO oxygen is not a given. Also (another what if) what if the burn started under his clothes? Fuel but not as much oxygen.
Tom...........you stole my line....good post!
Take away, any ONE of those three things Tom mentioned and you can't have a fire.
COOL: the ignition source (take away the heat with water)
Remove the OXYGEN through smothering, C02 or dry chemical extinguisher or smothering.
Remove the FUEL (shut off the gas supply for instance. Or remove the wood from the camp fire)
C02 will do both smother and cool at the same time but never use it on an electrical fire. Just dry chemical on electrical.
sO YOU ARE SAYIN YOU CAN CATCH ON FIRE IF YOU GET HOT UNDER THE COLLAR?So you are sayin yo can catch on fire if you get hot under the collar
?Don't we always have SOME oxygen in our bodies through the air we breath in from our first breathe till our last even if it comes a century down the line ???
So we can conclude that he held his fart too long and combusted. Thank you Bill Nye!
High blood levels of magnesium is the best working theory I've ever seen.
I've read about spontaneous combustion from many sources and many of the cases have defied explanation.
The problem is that a human body is over 90% water! Even a fat one. That's tough to get around.
Then, there is personal experience. Did you ever try to cremate a dead animal? I have and I will testify that it is not easy. It takes many times the weight of wood, compared to the weight of the animal and impossible even then, unless it is done right.
I am not saying that it is impossible but I will say that I have seen no reasonable explanation.
Don't know which is more amazing, the sheep story or this one. Either way, it's a weird day for news.
@Iammyown....
I'm still laughing from all the folks who slammed Feisty not showing up for the Jessy artical... She was SERVED!
It would have been perfection if the stories could have combined into a headline reading "Four men and 10 sheep killed in a spontaneously combustibe car fire ."
Good god, how did I miss the article on encouraging farting on an airplane? Sheesh.
The fart article is presently just under this one!
Scroll down after you get done pulling your finger.
I can understand someone burning up which is indeed horrible in itself, but how does anything burn in a confined area like in this case a kitchen which didn't even have any running water and not cause any other fire damage to anything around the burned body? That is the million dollar question.
Here's the quote from the article itself; "Fire crews found a badly burned body, but no fire damage to nearby furniture or other items"
What if the body had burned elsewhere? But if that had been done then there would be evidence of it I would assume.
Because the unburned items were only "nearby" not at the fire point. If they showed a picture, there would be a "circle" of damage around the body, but things outside that circle would not be burned and probably not damaged. Google 'not-so-spontaneous human combustion' and you can find some great articles explaining it.
There are lots of stories like this for at least a 100 years,Its happened before and will keep happening.[Read unsolved mysteries]
"Unsolved mysteries" books and crap like that are written to perpetuate the "could be" legend when in fact it has been thoroughly debunked. Ironically, my guy and I just watched a show on spontaneous combustion. I was particularly disturbed by the interview of the brother of a victim, who insisted that he had "seen it happen" when in fact he only saw her after she was on fire. He insisted that her death was "supernatural" to the point that I turned to my man and said, "And what meaning does he get out of making her death into something 'supernatural'?" It's like a religion to some people.
What do you call an exploding sheep?
Sis-Boom-BAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
You'd better credit the late Johnny Carson as "Carnac the Magnificent" for that one!
An extensive two-year research project—involving thirty historical cases of alleged SHC—was conducted in 1984 by science investigator Joe Nickell and forensic analyst John F. Fischer. Their lengthy, two-part report was published in the journal of the International Association of Arson Investigators,[3][4] as well as part of a book.[5] Nickell has written frequently on the subject,[3][4][5] appeared on television documentaries, conducted additional research, and lectured at the New York State Academy of Fire Science at Montour Falls, NY, as a guest instructor.
Nickell and Fischer’s investigation—which looked at cases in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries—showed that, again and again, the burned bodies were near plausible sources for the ignition: candles, lamps, fireplaces, and so on. Sometimes these sources were left out of popular accounts of the alleged phenomenon while they were hyped as mysterious. The investigations also found that there was a correlation between alleged SHC deaths and victims’ drunkenness or other incapacitation that could have caused them to be careless with fire and less able to respond properly to an accident. Where the destruction of the body was not extensive, the significant fuel source was the victim’s clothing.
However, where the destruction was extensive, additional fuel sources were involved, such as chair stuffing, floor coverings, the flooring itself, and the like. The investigators described how such materials helped retain melted fat to burn and destroy more of the body, yielding still more liquified fat, in a cyclic process known as the “wick effect” (or “candle effect”).
That nearby objects often went undamaged was not a scientific mystery but a matter of physics. Fire tends to burn upward, and it burns laterally with some difficulty. The fires in question are relatively small, achieving considerable destruction by the wick effect, and relatively nearby objects may not be close enough to catch fire themselves (much as one can get rather close to a modest campfire without burning). As with other mysteries, Nickell and Fischer cautioned against a one-explanation-fits-all approach but rather urged investigating on a case-by-case basis.
Wiki?
An exploding baby?
Sis-Boom-WAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
Your exploding parent?
Sis-Boom-MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
The other expolding parent?
Sis-Boom-PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
He really made an ash of himself...
Your vehicle if you live in Boston?
Sis-Boom-CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
Your female sibling?
Sis-Boom-AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!
An exploding Christmas caroler?
Sis-Boom-FA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!!!!!!!
Tom the article was correct. You do need heat (an ignition source) and fuel (air and a combustible material together are the "fuel" because it won't burn without both). Sorry this article was technically correct.
A Russian Emperor?
Sis-Boom-CZARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!
An exploding cheerleader?
Sis-Boom-Rah-Rah-RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
An exploding dancer?
Sis-Boom-CHA-CHA-CHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last but not least...an exploding comedian?
Sis-Boom-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
You can stop now.
One day there's going be a case of this caught on camera and I'm convinced that when that day comes the footage is going to reveal these folks are dying lighting farts. That's my theory and I'm stickin' to it cause it's cool and I don't like mysteries.
This happens when people try to light their farts afire!!!
Unless he was out hunting for Bigfoot, and found him, and Bigfoot burned him and brought him home and left him in there to make it look like spontaneous combustion.
It could happen.
Maybe Bigfoot tried to fire him up and smoke him.
Hey...Snoop Dog, um, er, I mean Snoop Lion smokes man size blunts!
It could happen.