STRANGE:Meet the baby boy who occasionally bursts into flames

Like many mothers, Rajeshwari Karnan
was delighted when she gave birth to a
son. The 23- year-old farm labourer and
her husband, Karnan Perumal, 26,
already had a two-year-old daughter,
but like many in the state of Tamil Nadu,
they considered a boy a particular
blessing.
So when Rahul arrived in May, they were
especially delighted.
However, just over a week later, their joy
turned to misery.
One day Rajeshwari Karnan suddenly
heard her baby Rahul (pictured)
screaming from inside the
hut. She ran towards him, but before
she could get there, a neighbour
shouted ‘Your baby is on fire!’
One afternoon, says Rajeshwari, she was
washing her daughter when she
suddenly heard Rahul screaming from
inside the hut. She ran towards him, but
before she could get there, a neighbour
shouted to her the words she will never
forget: ‘Your baby is on fire!’
‘There was a flame on his belly and his
right knee,’ Rajeshwari told the New York
Times last week, ‘and my husband
rushed with a towel to put it off
[sic]. I got very scared.’
The couple immediately took their son to
hospital, but the doctors were mystified.
Later, the parents returned home,
hoping this bizarre and disturbing
occurrence would not repeat itself.
But it has done — three more times,
according to the couple. The last incident
took place one afternoon last month,
with their little boy suffering first and
second-degree burns. As a result, the
family have now been forced to move
from their village, due to their
neighbours’ fears that the baby could
cause a serious fire.
This month, the couple took the child to
be examined at a hospital in the city of
Chennai, where the doctors are equally
baffled.
Foul play appears to have been ruled
out, with Karnan Perumal saying that he
and his wife would never be ‘crazy
[enough] to burn our own baby’.
Some people are saying the flames must
be the work of a deity, while others
suspect the use of combustible
phosphorous in the materials used
to build the couple’s home.
Doctors are now considering whether
baby Rahul is a victim of one of the
strangest and most mysterious of
phenomena said to affect the body
– spontaneous human combustion
But the doctors are now considering
whether baby Rahul is a victim of one of
the strangest and most mysterious of
phenomena said to affect the body
— spontaneous human combustion.
‘We are in a dilemma and haven’t come
to any conclusion,’ says Dr Narayan
Babu. ‘The parents have held that the
baby burned instantaneously without
any provocation. We are carrying out
numerous tests. We are not saying it is
SHC (spontaneous human combustion)
until all the investigations are complete.’
Is it really possible for a baby to burst
suddenly into flames? And if so, how on
earth does it happen — and could other
infants elsewhere in the world fall victim
to the same extraordinary
circumstances?
Although spontaneous combustion has
been written about for centuries, there
are many who are sceptical about its
existence. All too often, when presented
with the grisly image of a pile of human
ash with only the legs remaining, the
doubters will insist that the victim
probably died from falling asleep with a
cigarette, or was sitting too near a fire.
Such explanations may seem reasonable,
but they ignore the fact that human
bodies are extremely hard to burn. We
are composed largely of water.
And the bits of us that aren’t damp —
especially our bones — require a huge
and sustained amount of heat to reduce
to ash.