New York (CNN)–A fire broke out at Trump Tower on Saturday, leaving one man dead and six firefighters injured, the New York City Fire Department said.
Police identified the man killed as Todd Brassner, 67, a resident of the building’s 50th floor. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition but later died, said spokeswoman Angelica Conroy of the Fire Department.
Brassner was unconscious and unresponsive when firefighters pulled him out, the New York Police Department said. The medical examiner’s office will determine the cause of death.
The fire was contained to the 50th floor of the tower, located on Fifth Avenue in New York. It was ruled under control around 9 p.m., two hours after it was originally reported, the FDNY tweeted.
Six firefighters suffered injuries that are not life threatening, Conroy said.
No members of the Trump family were at the tower during the fire, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said.
The upper-level residential floors are not equipped with fire sprinklers, according to Nigro. When asked to comment on the President’s tweet, Nigro said the building “sure stood up quite well.”
His son, Eric Trump, also congratulated the firefighters before news of the death, saying “the @FDNY and @NYPD are truly some of the most incredible people anywhere!”
Brassner’s apartment was valued at $2.5 million, according to bankruptcy documents from 2015. Brassner had an extensive collection of prized works of art, including a portrait of himself by Andy Warhol, as well as hundreds of guitars and ukeleles, according to the bankruptcy documents.
The fire at Trump Tower comes three months after a minor fire broke out in a cooling tower on the roof of the building, according to CNN affiliate WCBS-TV. Two people were injured in the fire, which officials said may have been caused by electrical heaters inside the cooling tower.
CNN’s Gabriela Milian reported from New York and Amir Vera wrote in Atlanta. CNN’s Melanie Schuman, Tony Marco, Polo Sandoval, Linh Tran and Evan Simko-Bednarski contributed to this report.” {Source}
Consider that fire at Trump Tower a forewarning of things to come for America.
The president, typical trump fashion, tweeted about the incident, but rather that tweeting his concern for the welfare of all concerned, he bragged about how “well built” his building is.
Of course he didn’t tweet about this:
“Subsequent updates to the codes required commercial skyscrapers to install sprinklers retroactively, but owners of older residential high-rises are not required to install them unless the building undergoes major renovations.
Some fire safety advocates pushed for a requirement that older apartment buildings be retrofitted with sprinklers when the city passed a law requiring them in new residential high-rises in 1999, but officials in the administration of then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani said that would be too expensive.
Trump was among the developers who spoke out against the retrofitting as unnecessary and expensive.” [Source]
Think of that building-Trump Tower- as America, and think of poor Mr. Brassner as the American people.
About Post Author
