Nope. It is has pretty much been proven that any case of so-called spontaneous combustion is actually an outside heat source, or flame, burning human body fat. It almost always involved a smoker, but I believe a candle has been the source at least once. And they were almost always heavy drinkers.
Dear Anonymous,
A very long time ago as a child, I was taught that spontaneous combustion is actually NOT all that rare...
I do not know how true this is since I have not personally researched it, but long ago when houses were all wood and all had attics, it was told that housefires could spontaneously ignite in old stuff stored in the attic, when the sun beat down on the roof and got everything very dry and hot!
The roof itself typically uninsulated, insulation going into the attic floorboards...so we were taught to be careful about that.
It happened to me once.
One Christmas we had a box of really elaborate, very tasty, quite beautiful, chocolates all in the shape of sea shells. The one in the centre was outstanding and looked like one of those water-washed stones you find along the beach. It was so nice we all left it till last and, finally, I could resist it no longer. I picked it up, put it in my mouth, and bit.
Only to find that it really was a pebble. One of the kids (and I know which one) had eaten it very early and replaced it with something from his sea shell collection.
Spontaneous combustion? Oh, yeah!
It does happen more often than you would think. Oily rags, compost piles, hay piles, and other places where rapid oxidation can occur.
Spontaneous Human Combustion does not happen. In cases attributed to that, there has always been an outside heat source providing the necessary ignition source.
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