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Spontaneous Human Combustion at Adult Video Store?

I don’t think we’ve ever covered spontaneous human combustion (SHC) here at The Occult Section, not because it isn’t a fascinating phenomena, but mainly because I haven’t heard of too many cases lately. I came across this story in The New York Post, and though the story has some mysterious and cryptic elements to it, I somehow suspect that there is something else going on here. And it isn’t paranormal.

SAN FRANCISCO — A man caught fire Wednesday evening inside a San Francisco porn store and was fighting for his life in the hospital after suffering third-degree burns, KCBS-TV reported.

Arson experts said it was not clear what ignited the fire but police said the man had been watching videos in a private booth when the blaze erupted.

The man ran out the front door of the adult arcade “engulfed in flames” and was spotted by cops standing across the street, a police spokesman told KCBS.

“He came out of the building already on fire,” Lt. Kevin McNaughton said.

Firefighters, who luckily were only about a block away on an unrelated call, raced to the scene and doused the flames.

This story has a very funny element, in that it occurred in an adult video store (I’m sure jokes about friction and rubbing twigs/sticks together too fast can basically write themselves), but there’s also a serious side here, in that this man is fighting for his life. I’m not sure what happened to this man, or what caused him to burst into flames so fierce that he had to run out into the street and be doused by firefighters, but it does seem like we are not getting the full story here. And no mention of foul play. I suspect some sort of kinky sex ritual that can’t be printed (even in the seedy NY Post).

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