Does spontaneous human combustion actually exist? If so, what is it exactly?

Question

Please leave out the technical jargon, if you can.

Thanks!

Answer 1

No. Human bodies burn because they are flammable. A dead body will continue to burn as long as there is oxygen available for combustion. The end result looks spontaneous, however there is always evidence of some flame beforehand that lead to it.

Answer 2

Nope.  There is no biological mechanism that could cause it, and most other explanations are completely off-the-wall.  Most "cases" of spontaneous combustion have completely mundane causes - faulty space heater, dropped cigarette, etc.  They get pegged as spontaneous combustion because the pattern of burns looks so weird.  

For example, a charred body will be found in a chair, yet the chair itself will remain intact, or only parts of a victim's body will burn.  Those who claim that spontaneous human combustion is a real phenomenon neglect the fact that fire does weird stuff!  A human body is composed of many different types of tissues, so it won't burn like something homogeneous - like a piece of wood.  Skin will burn differently than fat, which will burn differently than muscle.  As a result, a completely mundane (though tragic) accident, such as a cigarette falling on a blanket, covering someone who is sleeping in a chair, can result in a very odd-looking remains and burn patterns.

Most cases of alleged spontaneous human combustion are labeled as such by people with little understanding of the human body or fire itself.  They are based in the argument from ignorance - we don't know how this body burned, therefore it had to have been spontaneous human combustion.