1 Man Killed In Apartment Fire At Trump Tower In New York City

An apartment fire in President Trump's commercial and residential skyscraper has left one man dead.

Lance Luckey of member station WNYC reports for our Newscast unit:

"Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro says the 50th-floor apartment at Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived early Saturday evening.

"He says about 200 firefighters battled the blaze, with four suffering minor injuries. A man who was in the apartment was taken to a hospital and later died.

"President Trump tweeted that the fire was "Very confined" — adding in parentheses — "well built building."

"The president's penthouse residence and the Trump Organization's offices are in Trump Tower, but he's spent little time there since taking office. None of the president's family was at the building."

The cause of the fire is not yet known and the investigation is ongoing.

There's more news about the victim as The Associated Press reports:

"Todd Brassner, 67, who was in the apartment, was taken to a hospital and died a short time later, the New York Police Department said. Property records obtained by The Associated Press indicate Brassner was an art dealer who had purchased his 50th-floor unit in 1996."

USA Today reports:

"New York City did not mandate sprinklers in every unit and common hallways of new residential buildings until March 1999 when then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani signed council legislation. That was well after the opening of Trump Tower in February 1983.

"The upper floors of Trump Tower, which are have 263 apartments, do not have sprinklers, Nigro told Spectrum News NY1, the 24-hour cable-TV news channel that serves New York's five boroughs."

Earlier this year, a small electrical fire broke out near the top of the building, according to The New York Times. A firefighter was hurt by falling debris and two civilians were injured.

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