What is Spontaneous combustion?

Spontaneous combustion is when something catches fire all by itself, without anyone lighting it.

Imagine you're sitting on a pile of leaves in the sun, after a while, they start to warm up and might even catch fire. That’s kind of like spontaneous combustion.

Sometimes things inside our homes or outside can get really hot because of tiny reactions happening inside them. Think about when you leave your lunchbox in the sun, and it gets super warm, that's like a small version of spontaneous combustion!

If you've ever left a bag of popcorn in the car on a hot day, you might have seen it puff up or even pop by itself. The heat inside the bag builds up until poof!, it starts to pop without anyone touching it.

So, spontaneous combustion is just like that warm lunchbox or the pile of leaves, something gets really hot all by itself and then catches fire!