George Mott was a firefighter

Firefighter

Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...

 who burned to death in his home outside Crown Point, New York

Crown Point, New York

Crown Point is a town in Essex County, New York, USA. The population was 2,119 at the 2000 census. The name of the town is a direct translation of the original French name, "Point au Chevalure."...

, in 1986. He is often cited as an example of spontaneous human combustion

Spontaneous human combustion

Spontaneous human combustion describes reported cases of the burning of a living human body without an apparent external source of ignition...

. His body was consumed along with the mattress he was lying on leaving an implausibly shrunken skull and a piece of rib cage.

Fire investigators suggested that the death was either caused by an electrical arc that shot out of an outlet and set fire to Mott, or a gas

Gas

Gas is one of the three classical states of matter . Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point , boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons...

 leak. Some believe his alcoholism

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

and heavy smoking could have contributed to it; he was not wearing his oxygen mask, and matches were found near the oxygen machine, unignited. He was 58 years old when he died.