On 9 October 1980, Jeanna Winchester, a naval airwoman, burst into flames while sitting in a car next to Leslie Scott, a friend. They were driving along Seaboard Avenue in Jacksonville, Florida, when flames suddenly appeared around Winchester who screamed "Get me out of here!" Scott tried to beat out the flames with her hands, and the car ran into a telephone pole.
Miss Winchester was taken to hospital and survived the experience, although 20 percent of her body was covered by burns, comprising her right shoulder and arm, neck, side and back.
Police patrolman T.G. Hendrix who investigated said he found no spilled petrol or other accelerant in the car. "The white leather she was sitting on was a little browned and the door panel had a little black on it. Otherwise there was no fire damage."
Miss Winchester told the local newspaper that she couldn't remember anything between riding uneventfully in the car and waking up in hospital. 'At first I thought there had to be a logical explanation,' she said, 'but I couldn’t find any. I wasn't smoking anything. The window was up, so somebody couldn't have thrown anything in. The car didn’t burn. I finally thought about spontaneous human combustion when I couldn't find anything else.'