Do Bodies Really Explode During Cremation?
By ALICE BENNETT
History - Science
Urban legend has it that when a body passes through a furnace at a crematorium, the fiery conditions can result in a dramatic corpse explosion, but this is actually unlikely.
A test of the effects of fire on human remains showed that exploding heads are a myth. In reality, a cremation is a dull affair where a body is slowly reduced to ash.
While there are things that can cause crematorium explosions, they typically come from inanimate objects accidentally left with or in the body, rather than the corpses themselves.
Despite this, there is a remote chance that noxious gasses left to brew in the body after death can imbue the corpse with explosive qualities.
The putrefaction process that breaks down a dead body produces ammonia, methane, and hydrogen sulfide — a potent and flammable mix.
Embalming procedures will slow the putrefaction process of decay down, making a human corpse bomb highly unlikely.
A dead body is far more likely to explode like a gruesome pinata if left in a mausoleum. Bodies placed above ground in mausolea do sometimes explode under the right conditions.
A rare phenomenon known as "exploding casket syndrome" can occur when tightly sealed and too-small caskets cause a dangerous build-up of gas that has nowhere to go.