<P> On July 2, 1951, Mary Reeser, a 67 - year - old woman, was found burned to death in her house after her landlady realized that the house's doorknob was extremely hot . The landlady notified the police, and upon entering the home, they found Reeser's remains completely burned into ash, with only one leg remaining . The chair she was sitting in was also destroyed . During the investigation, detectives found that Reeser's temperature was around 3500 degrees Fahrenheit, which puzzled the investigators due to such hot temperatures leaving almost all the room Reeser was in intact . Reeser was a user of sleeping pills, as well as a smoker . A common theory was that she was smoking a cigarette after taking sleeping pills, and then fell asleep while still having a lit cigarette, which would have burned her gown, leading to her death . Investigators also found that the fire had burned a socket, which stopped a clock at 2: 26am, suggesting that Reeser had been burned at around that time . </P> <P> Henry Thomas, a 73 - year - old man, was found burned to death in the living room of his council house on the Rassau estate in Ebbw Vale, South Wales, in 1980 . His entire body was incinerated, leaving only his skull and a portion of each leg below the knee . The feet and legs were still clothed in socks and trousers . Half of the chair in which he had been sitting was also destroyed . Police forensic officers decided that the incineration of Thomas was due to the wick effect . His death was ruled' death by burning', as he had plainly inhaled the contents of his own combustion . </P> <P> In December 2010, the death of Michael Faherty in County Galway, Ireland, was recorded as "spontaneous combustion" by the coroner . The doctor, Ciaran McLoughlin, made this statement at the inquiry into the death: "This fire was thoroughly investigated and I'm left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion, for which there is no adequate explanation ." </P> <Ul> <Li> In the comic story "The Glenmutchkin Railway" by William Edmondstoune Aytoun, published in 1845 in Blackwood's Magazine, one of the railway directors, Sir Polloxfen Tremens, is said to have died of spontaneous combustion . </Li> <Li> In the novel Bleak House (1853) by Charles Dickens, the character Krook, a disreputable rag - and - bottle merchant who lives largely on gin, Mrs Smallweed's only brother, is the apparent victim of spontaneous human combustion . </Li> <Li> In the episode Spontaneous Combustion (April 1999) of the American cartoon show South Park, several characters died by spontaneous human combustion . </Li> <Li> Two former drummers of the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap are said to have died in separate on - stage spontaneous human combustion incidents . </Li> </Ul>

When was the last reported case of spontaneous human combustion