Trump Tower fire that killed art dealer remains a mystery
FIRE chiefs were yesterday still investigating the cause of a blaze at Donald Trump’s New York skyscraper that killed one man and injured four fire crew.
Todd Brassner, 67, died in an apartment on the 50th floor of Trump Tower that was engulfed by the fire.
Onlookers were ushered away from the Manhattan building on Saturday evening after flames shot from its windows and thick black smoke billowed into the sky.
Some 200 firemen and members of the emergency services were sent to the scene on Fifth Avenue while police closed surrounding roads. The fire was extinguished after about 45 minutes.
The president has a residence on the top floors of the tower, but was in Washington at the time of the blaze.
He later took to Twitter to praise the work of firemen and credited the building’s design for stopping the spread.
“Fire at Trump Tower is out. Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. Thank you!” he wrote on Twitter.
Mr Brassner, an art dealer who counted Andy Warhol among his friends, was found unconscious in his apartment, which was completely ablaze.
“The fire was a difficult fire. The apartment was quite large and 50 storeys up,” said Dan Nigro, commissioner of the Fire Department of New York.
The upper, residential levels of Trump Tower are not fitted with sprinklers.
Mr Trump opposed legislation in 1998 that would have forced developers to install sprinklers in all residential buildings in response to a spate of fatal fires.