On a mild November night in 1974, Jack Angel settled in for some rest in his motorhome parked at a Savannah, Georgia motel. The 66-year-old traveling salesman drifted to sleep as the city lay quiet. Hours later, Angel awoke to a living nightmare – his skin seared with burns, blisters bubbling across his chest and limbs, yet no flames or smoke anywhere in sight​. The air was still. His pajamas and bedding were untouched by fire, and the RV’s interior showed no scorch marks​. Dazed and in agony, Angel stumbled out into the cool night, only to collapse on the hotel lobby floor seeking help​.

A Survivor Amid the Flames

Angel himself was haunted by the mystery. Once recovered enough to speak, he and his wife scoured the motorhome for any sign of an electrical short or stray flame – nothing. The sheets, sofa, and wiring were pristine​. “Something had to have caused all of the injuries,” he insisted, yet every normal cause had evaporated without a trace.

Investigators faced a puzzle worthy of the X-Files. Lightning strike? Unlikely – weather records showed clear skies​. A nearby power line surge? None detected​. Only after dismantling the RV’s plumbing did a clue emerge: the hot water heater’s safety valve was found open​. A theory formed that Angel might have woken to find the shower water cold, gone outside to fix the heater’s water pressure, and inadvertently released a jet of scalding, pressurized water onto himself​. Such an eruption could cook human tissue with intense heat while leaving clothes and surroundings unharmed. In fact, Angel eventually admitted in court that he had been sprayed by hot water while trying to adjust the valve​.

Despite the damning evidence, Angel had initially pursued a different story. With a prominent law firm behind him, he filed a $3 million lawsuit against the RV manufacturer, blaming a faulty water heater for his burn. But as the case dragged on, Angel’s narrative shifted. In legal depositions he described the hot water accident, only to later revert and sell his tale as a survivor of spontaneous human combustion on TV shows like That’s Incredible!​. The lawsuit collapsed for lack of proof – dropped by his attorneys a week before trial– leaving Jack Angel with a lost arm, a failed marriage, and a mystery that shadowed his remaining years​. He died in 1986, never fully learning what nearly turned him to ash.

Spontaneous Human Combustion: A Fiery Phenomenon

Angel’s case was extraordinary – he lived to tell the tale. Most alleged victims of spontaneous human combustion (SHC) do not survive. Spontaneous human combustion is the idea that a living human body can suddenly catch fire from within, without any external ignition source​. The concept has been recorded in lore and literature for centuries, typically involving people found reduced to ashes with surroundings eerily unburnt. In classic SHC cases, investigators find an “impossible” fire: the victim’s body incinerated at high temperature while nearby furniture, floors, and clothing remain relatively untouched​. Often the only remnants are charred limbs or a shrunken skull, and a greasy soot clinging to walls – as if the fire had selective appetite, consuming the body but little else​.

The idea of SHC is both compelling and terrifying: could a person burst into flames for no reason? Over the last 300 years, there have been a few hundred reported cases worldwide​. These incidents follow a haunting pattern. Typically, the victim is alone, often elderly or infirm. The combustion almost always occurs indoors, and often a sweet, smoky odor is noted by witnesses or later reported in the dwelling​. In Jack Angel’s scenario, the lack of external fire damage and his delayed pain fit the mold – as if his body burned quietly from the inside out while he slept​survivalresearch.ca. This phenomenon has captivated imaginations precisely because it defies our understanding of fire and the human body.

Historical Cases and Haunted History

Strange cases of human combustion date back to at least the 17th century. One early account from the late 1400s tells of an Italian knight, Polonus Vorstius, who allegedly drank two ladles of strong wine and promptly vomited flames before exploding into fire​. In 1725, a Parisian innkeeper’s wife, Nicole Millet, was found reduced to ashes on her kitchen floor. Suspicion fell on her husband for murder, but at trial he invoked spontaneous human combustion as the cause. Remarkably, the court accepted it – ruling that Nicole’s fiery end was due to “a visitation of God,” and exonerating her husband​. Such reports, though rare, cropped up often enough to enter the public consciousness and even the courts.

Perhaps the most famous historical case occurred in northern Italy in 1731. Countess Cornelia di Bandi was discovered one morning as a pile of ashes on her bedroom floor, only her lower legs and three fingers remaining​. The scene was bizarre: two candles in the room had melted, leaving intact wicks, and a soot film coated the furniture and even a piece of bread on a table​. The event was so unsettling that contemporaries offered supernatural explanations. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, SHC was often viewed as divine punishment – many victims were heavy drinkers, and moralists suggested they literally “burned from within” due to alcohol and sinful living​. In fact, early medical texts and newspapers noted the prevalence of older, overweight, often female victims, reinforcing the notion that a “debauched lifestyle” made one susceptible​.

By the 19th century, spontaneous combustion had gained an impressive literary pedigree. Herman Melville and Nikolai Gogol dispatched characters via SHC in their novels, but the most notorious fictional account came from Charles Dickens​. In Bleak House (1853), Dickens infamously killed off the rag dealer Mr. Krook by spontaneous combustion – leaving behind a heap of ashes and an oily residue on the walls. The depiction caused an uproar among critics who found it scientifically implausible. Dickens responded in the preface by citing real cases and eminent doctors, stubbornly writing, “I shall not abandon the facts until there shall have been a considerable Spontaneous Combustion of the testimony” in typical wry fashion​. His defiance reflected how widely debated yet popular SHC had become in Victorian times​.

Fast forward to the 20th century, and mysterious fires continued to be reported. In 1951, the case of Mary Hardy Reeser rattled investigators in St. Petersburg, Florida. Reeser, a 67-year-old widow, was found almost entirely incinerated in her armchair, yet the rest of her apartment had only minimal fire damage​. All that remained of Reeser herself were a charred liver, a piece of spine, and one intact foot still in its slipper​. The scene baffled the FBI and forensic experts, as reported in newspapers nationwide. With no evidence of accelerants and no sign of crime, Reeser’s demise was tentatively attributed to an “unexplained fire of unknown origin.”

A similar enigma struck in December 1966 in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. Dr. John Irving Bentley, a 92-year-old retired physician, was discovered burned to death in his home. In Bentley’s bathroom, a 2-foot hole had been burned through the floor, and inside it lay the ashes of his body – except for one leg, intact from the knee down, still wearing a slipper​. The rest of the house had only light smoke damage. A meter reader who found the gruesome scene described a smell of smoke and a fine ash coating surfaces, but nothing to explain how Dr. Bentley could have been essentially cremated on the spot. His death certificate cautiously cited “90 percent burning of the body” and asphyxiation, sidestepping the question of what started the fire​. Such macabre tableaux – a pile of ash and a lone body part – fueled public fascination and fears. By the late 20th century, every few years would bring a new headline of a person allegedly dying by spontaneous combustion, keeping the legend alive.

Scientific Theories: A Smoldering Truth?

Is there a prosaic explanation for these fiery mysteries? Modern forensic science points to yes. Researchers have found that many SHC incidents likely result from a perfect storm of unfortunate factors rather than an inexplicable internal fire. A leading theory is the “wick effect,” in which the human body unwittingly acts like an inside-out candle​. In this scenario, an external ignition source – say a dropped cigarette or spark – ignites the victim’s clothing or hair. If the person is immobilized (due to age, infirmity, or intoxication) and the fire burns slowly, the body’s fat can liquefy from the heat and soak into the clothing or furniture upholstery​. The clothing then functions as a wick, continuously feeding the flame with melted fat. The fire smolders at a relatively low temperature but for an extended period, essentially rendering the body to ashes over hours while producing relatively little flame​. This explains the otherwise puzzling fact that a body can be mostly cremated without a roaring fire – and why the damage is often confined to the victim’s body and immediate surroundings.

Experiments have repeatedly demonstrated the wick effect’s devastating efficacy. In 1998, the BBC actually conducted a test where a pig carcass (similar in fat content to a human body) was wrapped in a blanket and ignited to simulate SHC conditions. The pig burned for many hours, and by the end, its bones and flesh were reduced to char, while the rest of the room remained relatively unscathed. Such tests reproduced the kind of localized destruction seen in cases like Reeser’s and Bentley’s​. Investigators also note that many suspected SHC victims were found near open flames: a lit cigarette, a fireplace, or a candle. Mary Reeser, for example, was smoking before bed; Dr. Bentley was a pipe smoker and left his bathroom heater on. It’s posited that Reeser dozed off with a cigarette, or Bentley’s robe caught a spark from the heater – the initial small flame then set off the fatal wick effect, utterly consuming them. Crucially, any evidence of the initial ignition (the cigarette butt or matchstick) could be destroyed in the blaze or lost in the ash.

Notably, alcohol itself doesn’t make a body spontaneously ignite – the human body isn’t flammable enough to just catch fire. However, being very inebriated (or otherwise incapacitated) might prevent a person from responding to and extinguishing a small fire on their clothing​. Thus, intoxication and age are seen as risk factors: the victim may simply be too impaired to react while the flames grow. This matches the profile of many cases – elderly, often intoxicated or infirm individuals who were alone and unable to save themselves.

Of course, not everyone is satisfied with the wick effect explanation. Some argue there are aspects still unaccounted for, like the blue flame reported by witnesses in a few cases (blue flames suggest a chemical fire)​, or the odd report of internal organs remaining intact while outer body burns (though in most verified cases, organs are destroyed and only extremities remain). Nevertheless, to date no case of alleged spontaneous combustion has been proven unequivocally to lack an external ignition. Investigations by skeptical researchers have eventually traced most incidents to conventional sources, even if the fire’s intensity and localization seemed uncanny. Renowned skeptic Joe Nickell examined three decades’ worth of cases and concluded that “all had believable explanations”, from dropped cigarettes to smoldering embers​. In Jack Angel’s case, the evidence pointed to superheated water, not an occult fire, as the cause of his burns​.

Speculation and the Supernatural

Despite scientific consensus leaning toward normal causes, the mystique of SHC persists. The phenomenon occupies a hazy borderland between science and folklore, inviting speculation. Over the years, some paranormal enthusiasts have floated exotic theories: Could spontaneous fires be triggered by geomagnetic forces or ball lightning? (Ball lightning – a floating sphere of electricity – has been suggested in a few cases where people saw flashes of light before a fire​.) Others have wondered if unusual electrostatic buildup in the body could ignite flammable gases in the gut​. In the 1970s, a British researcher proposed an interplay of digestive gases (like methane) and enzymes might rarely produce an explosive chemical reaction – essentially turning the person into a human Bunsen burner. None of these hypotheses have strong evidence, but they highlight the lengths to which we’ll go to explain the seemingly inexplicable.

 more metaphysical line of thought links SHC to stress or emotional states, or even a so-called kundalini effect – an overload of the body’s spiritual “energy” combusting from within. This idea draws on anecdotes of people who burst into flame during moments of anger or distress, though such stories are anecdotal and not scientifically documented. Larry E. Arnold, an author who wrote Ablaze! about SHC, even coined the term “pyrotron” for a supposed subatomic particle that could spontaneously ignite living tissue​. It’s a highly speculative idea with no scientific backing, but it shows the allure of finding something beyond mundane explanations.

Then there are those who nod to divine or supernatural intervention – harking back to earlier centuries’ view of SHC as possibly “act of God”. In 2011, the coroner of West Galway, Ireland made headlines by officially recording a man’s death as “spontaneous human combustion.” The 76-year-old victim, Michael Faherty, had burned almost completely in his home with no clear source, and the coroner felt no accident or crime occurred​. Some saw this as vindication that SHC is real; others pointed out that an ember from the fireplace likely ignited Faherty’s clothing. The very next year, a coroner in Donegal, Ireland faced with a similar mysterious fire explicitly ruled out SHC, calling it “probably an urban myth.” Such is the divide between believers and skeptics.

The Legacy of a Mystery

In the end, Jack Angel’s story captures both the drama and prosaic reality behind spontaneous combustion lore. On one hand, we have the image of an older man dozing peacefully in his camper, only to awaken in horrific pain as invisible flames consume him from the inside out – a scenario straight out of the tabloids or a horror movie. On the other hand, we have the likely truth: an unfortunate accident involving a blast of scalding water, a man too stunned to feel pain until it was too late, and a series of human misperceptions that transformed a routine burn injury into a supernatural tale. The duality of his case — initially unexplainable, later all too explainable — is exactly how many alleged SHC incidents unfold. The legend lives on because, like a fire, it feeds on uncertainty and wonder.

Spontaneous human combustion remains a fringe phenomenon, but it refuses to fully flicker out. Every so often, a new report surfaces and captures headlines, reminding us of our enduring fascination with the idea that something as familiar as fire could strike us from within. The curious case of Jack Angel in Savannah adds to that eerie archive of stories. It invites us to imagine the unimaginable, yet also serves as a cautionary tale about jumping to paranormal conclusions. Some fires may start for reasons we don’t yet grasp, but more often, the explanation is hidden in plain sight, waiting to be uncovered by careful science. Until the next bizarre incident, the debate smolders on – a mix of fact and fiction, science and spectacle, forever fueled by the human fear of bursting into flames without warning.