- Spontaneous combustion can mean 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.
- Spontaneous human combustion is the alleged phenomenon of a human being suddenly bursting into flames, in dramatic cases reducing the person's torso to a pile of ashes, often leaving behind charred limbs.
- Pyrophoric 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.
de:Selbstentzündung
