Some Answers & an Experiment...
The Human Cinder answers some questions...
My hair came to my shoulder blades, not to my waist. It was damp, not dripping, having been wrapped in a towel and the excess moisture squeezed out before I got dressed. So my shirt was not damp and clinging to my body, held down by my damp hair.
I tested that this morning. My hair comes slightly below my shoulder blades. It does not dampen a shirt all the way down or hold the shirt against my waist.
There was no open flame or heat source inside or outside the house that could have ignited me That was one of the first things we investigated. No gas pilot lights, no heaters, no candles or incense, the kitchen stove was not on, no electric curlers and no clothes iron were even plugged in. It was a lovely June day, about 75 degrees F. outside, a few degrees cooler inside.
There were no scortch marks or soot on the shorts at all. Not a mark. The shirt tails hung down over my bottom. There were no ash marks or soot stains on the shorts. Not a speck. Soot and ash do not rub off without leaving a dark mark. When the shirt burned on the walkway, the ashes were black and sooty. I first felt the heat in the center of my back, slightly below my shoulder blades. I think that's where the shirt ignited. Strangely, I never felt heat or pain where the blue flames shot out above my waist -- until later.
I didn't notice any smell other than the smell of incinerated animal flesh, but then I was rather preoccupied at the moment so not noticing doesn't mean it wasn't there. Nobody else mentioned any smell other than the way I smelled.
There's nothing in the closet except clothes, shoes, purses, hats and some cedar filled sachets, along with various clothes hangers, and a wire shoe rack. The enterior hadn't been painted or fumigated or sprayed with anything. The walls are drywall painted white (years ago) and the floor is hardwood oak planking. I sweep and damp mop the closet floors, but I have never polished, oiled or waxed inside the closets. I wouldn't want the odor to permeate the clothes. I have never stored any kind of household chemical or cleaner in a bedroom closet. Sodium of various kinds are in the kitchen cupboards.
When we experimented catching cloth on fire with a mirror and the sun, we succeeded in creating smoke and a smoldering burn, but no flames. Without additional fuel, like bits of dried grass, the fire would go out on its own. That may have been due to chemical treatments of fabrics. I don't know for sure.
This morning as I applied cologne, it became clear that alcohol evaporates. Cologne dries on the skin quickly. I timed how long it took me to splash on cologne, apply lipstick, dress casually, and walk out the front door to the porch, with hair still wet. Five minutes. We need to experiment...
I will buy a chicken. I will cut off the back, leaving the skin in place (to simulate human skin.)
I will warm it to room temperatures, wash it in bath soap, dry it thoroughly, rub it with the lotions and potions I normally use after a bath, douse it liberally in cologne, cover it with several layers of cotton guaze, dash to my neighbor's house, and then, using tongs, I will hold it over the blue burning flame on my neighbor's gas cooking range (or gas barbeque.) I will keep the chicken wrapped in the guaze to simulate the shirt, which was manufactured before clothing flammability standards were made law. The cottom guaze in my bathroom medicine cabinet does not say it has been treated to retard flammability. I doubt that it is. It's used to bandage booboos.
Under normal circumstances, a piece of chicken would NOT catch fire when held over a blue cooking flame. It would cook, but not flame on it's own.
Would this experiment suffice to test the flammability of cologne on skin? Please advise.
Edited to add the "NOT"
