A Missouri police chief’s lit cigarette was the cause of a fire that destroyed a local nursing home over the summer, an official report has found.
In the early morning hours of August 7, 2025, the Vienna Point residential care facility went up in flames. Photos taken by the Vienna Fire Protection District showed a bright orange blaze burning through the building’s roof as smoke billowed through the dark sky.
Crews launched an “offensive attack with heavy fire conditions, but with water supply issues, it was decided to go to a defensive mode and we requested mutual aid tankers and manpower,” Vienna fire officials said.
First responders were able to get everyone out of the building unharmed but could not save the structure.
“Although the loss of the facility is tragic, we didn’t lose any life and had no injuries,” the city’s Fire Protection District said.
Security video revealed the moments leading up to the fire, which was ruled an accident.
The video, which the Missouri state fire marshal shared with ABC 17, reportedly showed Vienna Police Chief Shannon Thompson arriving at the nursing home shortly before midnight on August 6. Thompson was reportedly responding to an accidental 911 call.
The person reported to be Thompson then smoked a cigarette and placed it in a planter outside the building’s entrance, stomping it inside the planter before leaving, the video appears to show. About 90 minutes later, a flame sparks in the planter, which erupts into a larger fire that engulfs the building.
Investigators say the fire was caused by “the unintended result of an individual placing a burning cigarette near combustible material,” according to ABC 17, which obtained records from the fire marshal.
Thompson confirmed to investigators that he placed a cigarette in the planter and tried to extinguish it, noting that the brand of cigarettes that he smoked is designed to self-extinguish, ABC 17 reports.
Maries County Prosecutor Anthony Skouby is yet to decide whether to press charges against Thompson. A spokesperson for Skouby told the Daily Mail, “The prosecuting attorney is still investigating and gathering evidence.”
“A cigarette butt can was just 10 feet away, and he put his lit cigarette out in a plastic potted plant,” Skouby said in a statement shared by the Maires County Advocate in November. “I believe that listing the fire as accidental is insulting to my intelligence.”
The Independent has reached out to Thompson and Skouby’s office for comment.
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