BCoFD : Man Commits Suicide After Setting Fire To Essex Apartment

Press release from the Baltimore County Fire Department:

August 09, 2021

A 74-year-old man who set fire last night to his Essex apartment before committing suicide has been identified by Baltimore County Police investigators.

He is David Boyd Thompson of the 1000 block of Franklin Ave., 21221. 

BCoFD and BCoPD were dispatched just after 11 p.m. to the Essex Co-Op Apartment Complex in the 1000 block of Franklin Avenue for a fire alarm sounding. First-arriving firefighters did not see smoke or fire at first, but after searching the building theyfound a small fire with heavy smoke in an eighth-floor unit. The sprinkler system had activated and was extinguishing the fire.

At 11:27 p.m., while five to 10 firefighters were working on the ground floor to attach hoses to a standpipe, Thompson jumped from the 12th floor, the topmost floor. He landed about two feet from a BCoFD captain. EMS personnel provided emergency medical care, but Thompson's injuries were fatal.

Investigators determined that Thompson, who was scheduled to be evicted after being told he could not smoke in the building, set the fire in his eighth-floor apartment before committing suicide. They found several points of origin in  the unit, as well as empty bottles of charcoal fluid and a lighter. 

The one-alarm fire was contained to the suspect's apartment, and no residents were displaced.

This press release was produced by the Baltimore County Fire Department. The views expressed here are the author’s own.