Controlling fire, producing flames
A 67-year-old woman was reduced to ashes in her flat, leaving one slippered foot, with nearby furniture nearly intact; the FBI concluded a ‘wick effect’ — clothing ignited, then body fat sustained the burn.
A 76-year-old burned to death at home with no accelerant and no source; the coroner recorded ‘spontaneous human combustion’ as cause — an Irish first.
A Scottish nanny had repeated unexplained fires at Italian employers’ homes and was charged with arson and attempted murder, the press calling it ‘pyrokinesis’; in 1983 convicted of arson but released in court.
Charcoal conducts heat poorly and foot contact is brief, so ordinary people can walk across safely doing no ‘work’.