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Spontaneous combustion can have several meanings:

• The self-ignition, or apparent self-ignition, and burning of any mass; often of highly flammable materials, such as a pile of oily rags; see combustion.
• Haystacks often self-ignite because of heat produced by bacterial fermentation of the hay.
• Spontaneous human combustion is the alleged phenomenon of a human being suddenly bursting into flames.
• Pyrophoric materials can ignite spontaneously under certain conditions:
  • Some types of coal are susceptible to spontaneous ignition.
  • Some alloys, such as ferrocerium for lighter "flints" and the hardened depleted uranium used in anti-armor weapons, have a low ignition temperature when finely divided. Scraping such an alloy tends to create a large number of sparks, and pulverizing it can lead to a fierce metal fire.
  • Other substances such as caesium, rubidium or silanes can ignite spontaneously when contacting air. See pyrophoricity.
  • Sodium metal ignites spontaneously when placed in water.

[edit] In popular culture

• "Spontaneous Combustion" is an episode of the South Park television series.
• Spontaneous Combustion was also the name of a defunct London based improvisational theatre collective.

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