In December 2010, Michael Faherty died in his home in Galway, Ireland. His body was burned and the fireplace was lit, but there was no other source of flames or fuel. The house was largely uncharred. The only damage was soot marks on the ceiling and floor, right where the 76-year-old retiree expired.
At a loss for an alternate explanation, the coroner chalked up Faherty’s death to: Spontaneous. Combustion.
Sooo…fact? Fiction? Something in between? In the latest video from Popular Science, we separate the fact from the fiction when it comes to spontaneous combustion.
The Baffling Cases of Spontaneous Human Combustion
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