
What is the cause of Spontaneous Human Combustion?
A Mysterious Death

Fifteen years earlier, in Florida, a landlady went to deliver a telegram to an elderly tenant by the name of Mary Reeser. Finding Ms. Reeser's metal doorknob to be hot to the touch, she called police. What they found inside were Ms. Reeser's ashes, among the remains of a chair in which she had been sitting. Only part of her left foot (wearing a slipper!) and her backbone remained. Her skull had shrunken to "the size of a teacup". The room in which she burned in, however, showed little evidence of the event.
These are two cases of believed Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC).
Theories

Also bizarre is the fact that usually the victim is alone and appears to not have struggled.
In many cases, only a limb is found intact and uncharred - most times a leg or foot. In some cases the skull has also shrunk.

A proven phenomenon is the Wick Effect, which many believe to be behind the causes of these deaths. The theory holds that an external source ignites the body and the clothed human body acts like a candle, with human fat being the energy source inside and the wick (the clothing of the victim) outside. However, why does the fire stop with only the human body and not affect its nearby surroundings?
Combustion Witnessed

However, no external ignition source was present on January 8th, 1985, when Jacqueline Fitzsimons, a 17 year old student, suddenly burst into flames while talking to fellow classmates in a corridor in Cheshire, England. After complaining of feeling unwell and of a "burning sensation" in her back, she burst into flames and while many ripped her now burning clothes off of her, her hair and body ignited all over. She was rushed to hospital where it was found that 18% of her body had burnt away.
She died 15 days later in ICU.
Several eyewitnesses interviewed said they were nowhere near anyone smoking.
Does the human body have the capability for some reason to ignite itself at will, causing a horrific death?
If so, do we trigger it?
Or are all of these cases caused by external sources and hyped up to be cases of the "Fire from Within?"
Put together by Ashley Hall 2013