Unprompted inflammation in human beings
In the year 1985, a chilling incident took place in the UK that has remained unexplained to this day. The case of Jacqueline Fitzsimon, a student from Halton College in Widnes, has baffled fire investigators and police experts for decades.
Jacqueline's case is one of the cases that still hovers under a big question mark in the study of Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC), a phenomenon that has been reported for approximately 300 years. SHC is characterised by people appearing to burn without any external influences, unusual burn patterns, containment of the fire to the body, and certain body parts showing no signs of burns.
On that fateful day, Jacqueline left the college with a group of friends. However, her body suddenly caught fire. Despite her friends' valiant attempts to extinguish the fire, Jacqueline later died in the hospital. Investigations revealed that all stoves had been turned off an hour earlier, making it unlikely that she had ignited at one of the stove burners. Lab tests with Jacqueline's jacket could not provide a reasonable explanation for her spontaneous combustion.
One of the most striking indicators of SHC is the fact that the victim's body burns almost entirely, yet certain body parts like extremities or the head show no signs of burns. Jacqueline's case fits this description perfectly.
In 2000, German forensic biologist Mark Benecke examined several cases of SHC using crime scene photos and police reports. He proposed the theory of multiple wick effect as a possible explanation for the unusual burn patterns observed in cases of SHC. According to this theory, the victim's clothing initially catches fire. The subsequent liquefaction of the underlying subcutaneous fat causes the clothing to act like a multi-layered wick, burning only the body regions covered by clothing.
Benecke's theory of multiple wick effect has been proposed as an alternative to pseudoscientific theories about SHC, such as body gas explosions or geomagnetic interferences. While it provides a plausible explanation for some cases, it does not account for all instances of SHC, leaving some cases, like Jacqueline's, still shrouded in mystery.
Despite many attempts at explanation, some cases of SHC continue to be a mystery, providing material for future debates. The case of Jacqueline Fitzsimon serves as a stark reminder of the unexplained nature of this bizarre phenomenon.
