A 74-year-old man was found dead inside his home after a fire tore through a house in Glasgow Village on Tuesday night, the second deadly house fire to strike north St. Louis County this month. First responders located the man, identified as Mark Thompkins, inside the home and pronounced him dead at the scene.
The fire broke out just after 9 p.m. Tuesday in the 200 block of Perthshire Road, according to firstalert4.com. Investigators said a preliminary look at the scene found the fire does not appear to be suspicious, though the exact cause remains under investigation, per the same report. KSDK also reported a man was killed in a St. Louis County house fire.
Investigators in an Earlier Fire
Hoodline’s earlier coverage said St. Louis County Police and the St. Louis Regional Bomb and Arson Unit were investigating the separate October 9 fire on 94th Avenue. No further details about the cause, the extent of the damage, or who else may have lived in the Perthshire Road home have been released.
This marks the second fatal house fire in north St. Louis County within less than two weeks. On Oct. 9, a fire at a home in the 15600 block of 94th Avenue killed two children, later identified by stltoday.com as Zander McBride and Aura McBride. Responders arriving at that fire found three victims under the age of 18 inside the house, with a third child left in critical condition.
A Broader Pattern of Deadly House Fires
The back-to-back tragedies come amid sobering national numbers on residential fire risk. In 2023, the national average for all fire casualties was 2.1 deaths and 6.4 injuries per 1,000 fires, while residential structure fires alone averaged 5.8 deaths and 19.7 injuries per 1,000 fires, according to the Missouri fire data compiled by usfa.fema.gov. Separate federal statistics note that portable heater fires made up just 3% of residential heating fires but accounted for 41% of fatal heating fires, a disparity flagged in the agency's broader fire statistics.
No additional information has been released about what started the Perthshire Road fire or whether anyone else was inside the home at the time. St. Louis County investigators have not said when they expect to determine a cause.
