peregrinerose 0 #1 March 19, 2006 My husband and pondered this tonight and thought we'd ask the all knowing dz.commers about it... If you spontaneously combust in your home and it burns down as a result, are you guilty of arson since you did technically start the fire yourself? Do or do not, there is no try -Yoda Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
labrys 0 #2 March 19, 2006 Arson is intentional, not spontaneous.Owned by Remi #? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Frenchy68 0 #3 March 19, 2006 QuoteMy husband and pondered this tonight and thought we'd ask the all knowing dz.commers about it... If you spontaneously combust in your home and it burns down as a result, are you guilty of arson since you did technically start the fire yourself? Good question. Much like someone dying in a bizarre gardening accident. Can the surviving spouse sue the garden? I wonder why I'd think these two topics are related actually... Never mind, I'll go back in my hole and smell the glove. "For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mdrejhon 8 #4 March 19, 2006 From Discovery Channel... I saw a special on Discovery TV that showed how spontaneous combustion works. It's not exactly spontaneous actually. What happens is that your clothes got lit or something, and now the clothes act like a candlewick burning your body/bodyfat.... (works best if clothes are very flammable and the body burns, temperature too low to burn down the house but hot enough to burn away the body. The result is that the person becomes a pile of ashes. Scientists did a test with a fully clothed dead pig, and the pig burned away for hours without setting the rest of the mockup house alight, it was burning like a big candle under control with the clothing cover like a candlewick burning off the body and slowly turning the body to ashes... Some things melted in the room (plastic TV casing, etc) but the room wasn't hot enough to ignite. In the past, spontaneous combustion looked spontaneous because nobody understood it, but now there are some accurate theories of how it happened. Someone knocks out or dies, carrying some oil lamp or cigarette, get lit on fire by the little oil lamp as they collapse in the middle of a room, and then the person slowly burns away without lighting the rest of the room.... then later people looking for the person discover just a pile of ashes in the residence. (Many other scenarios exist, but this is one realistic scenario of a spontaneous combustion) If the whole place burns down, it does not have the "appearance" of spontaneous combustion. The appearance of spontaneous combustion is usually referred to cases where the whole place didn't burn down.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gravitational 0 #5 March 19, 2006 Is the insurance company involved? then it's arson and probably won't be covered since it was 'you' that started the fire.------ Michael Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freeflir29 0 #6 March 19, 2006 Seriously.......I'm sure it would be covered under "An act of God." Not seriously............this is why fat people shouldn't wear spandex. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IanHarrop 43 #7 March 19, 2006 QuoteMy husband and pondered this tonight and thought we'd ask the all knowing dz.commers about it... If you spontaneously combust in your home and it burns down as a result, are you guilty of arson since you did technically start the fire yourself? They'll have a hard time prosecuting you for it "Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me" Dorothy Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NWFlyer 2 #8 March 19, 2006 "Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year. It's just not widely reported." "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
