Mother of ‘fire baby’ returns with another burned son

A WOMAN whose first son went up in flames four times, has returned to emergency with another burned baby.

AN INDIAN woman whose baby boy allegedly ‘spontaneously combusted’, has had another child go up in flames.

K. Rajeswari, then 22, was put under heavy public scrutiny in 2013 when it emerged that her first son, Rahul, burst into flames four times, leaving the infant with burns to his head, chest and thighs. The fires started happening when he was just nine days old and continued for about two months.

While doctors carried out numerous tests, they were never able to prove whether it was spontaneous human combustion. A theory put forward that the child produced combustible gases that led to his burning up was debunked when tests could not find any feasible gases.

“No feasible amount of methane or ethanol gas emission from Rahul’s body has been found,” Dr R Narayana Babu, head of the pediatrics department at Kilpauk Medical College, told the Mumbai Mirror.

The mysterious fires stopped after doctors advised the parents to keep Rahul hydrated, in an air-conditioned environment, and to dress him in cotton clothes.

But doctors have had to revisit the case after Rajeswari once again turned up in emergency with another burned baby boy who reportedly caught on fire on January 15 at her home. Tests are being run on her nine-day-old baby and he will be monitored by surveillance cameras for a month while he is in the neonatal intensive care unit of Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital in Chennai in south India. Doctors are also treating him for 5 per cent burns on his feet.

The parents on television in 2013. Screenshot from IBN Live footage.

A baby boy is being treated in Chennai after spontaneously combusting.

The mother said she found him on fire after returning from the bathroom.

“I had gone to use the bathroom which is just behind the house. When I was coming back, I heard my baby screaming and ran in to find his feet on fire. I quickly doused him with water and rushed to the local hospital,” Rajeswari told The Hindu.

The family, who also have a three-year-old daughter Narmadha, were driven out of their village in Villipuram district, 200km south of Chennai after news of their first ‘burning baby’ became public. Neighbours suspected them of deliberately setting fire to the baby, and the father’s family also kicked them out after Rahul went up in flames for the third time.

Doctors have previously suggested that claims of spontaneous combustion usually involve child abuse in cases of Munchausen by proxy syndrome, where the primary caretaker exaggerates or fabricates illnesses.

While doctors raised concerns that Rahul could have been the victim of abuse, there was reportedly no evidence of damage to his internal organs.

Another explanation for the burned children could come from the building material used in the family’s village.

Several homes burned to the ground in 2004 because of highly flammable phosphorous used in the buildings, a fact reportedly confirmed by local fire officials.

The mother has now been asked to undergo counselling at the hospital and a four member team has been formed to investigate the burns on her youngest son.