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- of spot fires. Forgotten were the spontaneous fires on the ceiling (how did Wanet climb up there?). Forgotten were the mysterious brown spots appearing in front of reliable eyewitnesses. Apart from the obvious attempt to rationalise by using the thir- teen-year-old as a scapegoat, here was an extraordinary set of spontaneous fires that had investigators up to the US Air Force stumped. What did it? We'll never know now, but it is an amaz- ing record of spontaneous combustion that has puzzled investiga- tors for decades. Two other great and mystifying fires are worth mentioning here. It was Sunday evening, 8th October 1871 when a series of fires began across the midwestem states of the USA at the end of a three-month drought. The Great Fire of Chicago was the one that grabbed the headlines. It began at 9.25 pm in the lumber district of the west side. For twenty-seven hours it raged, destroying 17,500 buildings, taking 250 lives and causing US$200 million damage. Fire hoses were turned to ash and water turned to spray in the winds accompanying the fire. According to eyewitnesses, each time it was controlled, buildings far away from the fires burst into flames from the interior outwards. The flames melted the hardest stone, fused piles of iron two hundred feet from fires, and at one stage tured on itself and burnt half a mile into the teeth of the massive gales of wind. Green, blue and red flames were seen by eyewitnesses throughout the city. Across the USA, massive tornadoes of fire burnt millions of acres of forest, destroyed dozens of towns and killed several thousand people. On 16th June 1945 in Almerfa province, Spain, another strange set of fires occurred. According to reports, they began in white clothing spread out on the ground to dry. For the next twenty days, over three hundred fires began without visible cause, burn- ing barns, farmhouses, threshing bins, and clothing drying in yards. In almost every instance the objects catching fire were white. Spanish government officials sent scientists to the town of La Roda, seat of the fires, to investigate. One scientist had his box of instruments burst into flames during his investigation. Scientists suggested it was due to St Elmo's Fire or underground mineral deposits. On Sth July, a column of whirling brown wind struck a small settlement, kindling thirty-foot flames. Very soon after this, the fires died away (Gaddis, 1994). The phenomenon of apparent spontaneous combustion in human beings is one that gets little serious investigation from fire and forensic authorities around the world. Yet we've seen there may be a hundred or more cases a year of unexplained fires that totally consume human beings, leaving little trace apart from the remains © of a leg or hand. The room in which the person is incinerated is often unburnt. This type of fire ought to mystify even the most rational of investigators—yet it doesn't seem to inspire sufficient interest in the rigorous scientific research required to pinpoint the cause of spontaneous human combustion. Perhaps the subject will get a more thorough, unbiased airing in the mainstream media some time in the near future. ee References: + Jenny Randles and Peter Hough, Spontaneous Human Combustion, Bantam, London, UK, 1993. + Vincent Gaddis, Mysterious Fires and Lights, Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, Garberville, CA, USA, 1994. *Dr A. M. Davie, "Human Spontaneous Combustion", R..L.K.O. Journal, No. 45, Autumn/Winter 1994, published by Research Into Lost Knowledge Organisation, UK. + Jenny Randles and Peter Hough, "Smokescreen: Investigating SHC", Fortean Times #63, June/July 1992. * John Heymer, "Human Candles", Fortean Times #74, April/May 1994. 60 * NEXUS APRIL - MAY 1995