Trump Tower fire leaves one dead, six firefighters injured

One civilian was killed and six firefighters were injured in a fast-moving fire that broke out on the 50th floor of Trump Tower in Manhattan early Saturday evening. The 67-year-old man who died, Trump Tower resident Todd Brassner, had been found critically hurt in the apartment where the blaze began, and later succumbed to his injuries at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital. The six firefighters received only minor injuries.

The four-alarm fire was quickly contained to just the 50th floor, but was not considered under control until just before 8 p.m. on account of the smoke conditions on the floors above. Per FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro, the fatally injured resident was found inside the burning apartment by firefighters after they knocked the door down. Nigrocalled the blaze a “very difficult fire” on account of the apartment being very large, the fact that it was in a high-rise, and how much smoke had filled the building. He also said that the apartments on the upper floors of the building are not equipped with sprinklers.

Trump Tower was not evacuated, but many residents, who reported smelling smoke throughout the building, self-evacuated anyway. At one point, flames could be seen emerging from several windows on one side of the building:

More than 200 firefighters and EMTs responded to the blaze, which was first reported at 5:35 p.m. The cause of the fire is not yet clear.

The fire is unlikely to have had any impact on the Trump family’s home, which occupies the building’s top floors. No members of the Trump family were in the building at the time, but President Trump, who was in Washington, quickly — and possibly falsely — tweeted that the fire was already out, while also taking the opportunity to praise the building that bears his name:

No one else reported that the fire was out until about 30 minutes after Trump’s tweet, and the situation was not deemed under control by the FDNY until around 8 p.m.

In January, another smaller fire broke out in a cooling tower on the roof of the building, injuring two people.

PM9JA.BLOGSPOT.COM