Well, let us answer your question as you asked it and then answer what we think you’re really asking.
Spontaneous combustion happens when heat-generating chemical reactions occur in an enclosed place. Usually heat from oily rags or mouldering vegetation escapes into the surrounding atmosphere, but if it’s stored in a place with poor ventilation, the heat can’t escape until it catches ablaze.
Since there have been numerous cases of spontaneous combustion in warehouses and on farms, we know that many people have been killed as a result of these fires.
However, it’s hard to say for sure the cause of many fires, so attempting to quantify the numbers of human dead is difficult.
That’s the answer to your question. However, we suspect you might have been trying to ask the following question, and so we’ll ask it ourselves:
