The death of Margaret Hogan

Margaret Hogan, an 89-year-old widow living alone on Prussia Street in Dublin, was found dead after a fire in her house on 28 March 1970.

Margaret Hogan, an 89-year-old widow, had a house on Prussia Street in Dublin and lived there alone. The Irish Times reports that a neighbour, Mrs Rigney, visited around 4pm the afternoon before the discovery. Mrs Rigney washed the hair and feet of Mrs Hogan, then left her healthy as usual, seated beside the fire in her armchair. Next morning, at half past nine, the remains of Mrs Hogan were found on 28 March 1970. Conor Brady reached the scene first among reporters that day. He became the paper's Editor in 1986.

Wikipedia describes what was found. Her remains were ashen in the armchair, and both feet and the legs below the knee were undamaged. Plastic flowers on a table in the middle of the room had turned to liquid. A television with a melted screen stood 12 feet from the armchair. The rest of the room was almost untouched.

The Irish Times quotes the coroner, who called the circumstances unusual and said they fit the label "spontaneous combustion". He explained that this is a term from forensic literature for a person burned to death with no obvious source of the fire, and that it makes no claim that the fire began spontaneously.