A new type of incident in the form of a methane explosion caused by spontaneous combustion of coal is receiving more and more attention due to the high ground temperature and high methane content in coal mines. To investigate the formation process of this type of incidents and advance the research on methane explosion risk caused by spontaneous coal combustion, a self-designed experimental platform was used to determine the influence of spontaneous coal combustion on methane migration in the goaf. Additionally, the effect of different ventilation velocities at the mining face on methane migration in the goaf was studied. The results reveal that air leakage plays a key role in methane migration in the goaf. The bigger the ventilation velocity, the larger the area affected by air leakage. In addition, the superposition of the air leakage and the horizontal and vertical movement of hot gases creates the entrainment effect in the spontaneous combustion area. Eventually, the methane concentration at the location of spontaneous combustion is the lowest and it gradually increases outside the spontaneous combustion area because of the superposition of air leakage, 'fire pressure' and the entrainment effect. (C) 2018 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.