A postman wanted to deliver a letter to mary reeser an elderly woman who lied alone in an apartment block when the postman received no response a neighbour of mrs reeser's offered to hand it to her. After knocking on the door several times she tried turning the doorknob it was so hot that she cried out in pain fearing what might have happened she asked two house painters were working on the same seventh floor to break into the apartment the men put their shoulders to the door and pushed it open. A blast of hot air hit them and they expected to see the room on fire lnstead they saw only a piece of wood burning in the same place ther were the metel springs of an armchair some smouldering boones and a slipper with the foot still inside burnt off at the ankle! The men put out the fire and called the police the officers looked around for signs of the cause they saw only a leyer of soot on the upper part of the walls and some melted plastic switches everything alse seemed normal a newspaper lying near the small area of burnt floor was not even damaged the police suggested that mrs reeser must have fallen asleep while smoking and accidentally set fire to herself but no one accepted the explanation according to some experts the temperature needed to burn a body to the bone had ti be at least 1,500 degrees celsius and no burning cigarette could cause such heat the experts however could not give a satisfactory explanation either