• Duranie@literature.cafe
      16·
      11 months ago

      Fwiw, many places charge extra for cremation over 300lbs.

      I had to look it up. Apparently it is possible to cremate people significantly larger than that, but it gets tricky and thus costs extra.

      • Russianranger@lemmy.world
        9·
        11 months ago

        I’m kind of horrified to figure out “how”, like do they say “well time to start hacking off body parts” or just putting them in a room and someone just grabs a flamethrower, then after the remains cool down a janitor sweeps up what’s left of Jeff and tosses the dust pan into a container

        • CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world
          11·
          11 months ago

          The reasoning isn’t at all what I thought. It’s less about accommodation of the body and more to do with the heat generation. Fat creates 20,000 BTU of heat compared to muscle around 1,000 BTU. So it is actually dangerous and a fire hazard to cremate obese people.

          They mostly charge more because it’s slower though. Most bodies can be cremated in an hour and a half to three hours, meaning that multiple cremations can take place in a day. Whereas obese cremations may consume most of the day. So you’re talking 3-4 hours of cremation for a morbidly obese person. That’s not to mention likely needing multiple personnel for transporting the body or the slow cooldown of the remains. And then having to be careful of a fire hazard.

      • WetBeardHairs@lemmy.ml
        71·
        11 months ago

        At that size they can just drag the body onto a mattress and toss a lit cigarette on it. The flames should be self sustaining.