On the morning of 2 July 1951 in the United States, a postman wanted to deliver a letter to Mary Reeser, an elderly woman who lived 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' who 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 aie hit them and they expected to see the room on fire. instead' they saw only a piece of wood burning. in the same place, there were the metal springs of an armchair, some smouldering bones 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 sings of the cause. they saw only a layer of soot on the upper part of the walls and some melted plastic switches. everything else 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 to be at least 1500 degrees celsius, and no burning cigarette could cause such heat. the experts, however, could not give a satisfactory explanation either.