
A fire at Donald Trump's New York skyscraper has killed one man and left four firefighters injured.

Todd Brassner, 67, who was in apartment 50C on the 50th floor of Trump Tower, in Manhattan, died in hospital after the unit was engulfed by the blaze.

Brassner was an art dealer who had purchased his 50th-floor unit in 1996. He was friends with Andy Warhol, and is mentioned multiple times in Warhol's autobiography.

The deceased tenant of the posh Trump Tower pad filed for bankruptcy in 2015. In the bankruptcy filing it says the apartment he lived is worth $2.5million.

'The limited support of his family coupled with his medical problems caused the debtor to fall into arrears on his mortgage, credit card payments and line of credit payments,' says the filing.

Flames and thick black smoke were seen coming from windows of the building, where the president has a residence, on Saturday evening.

Some 200 firefighters and members of the emergency services rushed to the scene on Fifth Avenue while the New York Police Department closed surrounding roads.

The fire broke out shortly before 6pm local time, filling floors of the 58-storey building with a 'considerable' amount of smoke, The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) said.

The fire wrapped around the 50th floor and angled out through several windows in Trump Tower, the New York City home base of the president, in Midtown Manhattan Saturday

The massive blaze shot out several windows on the 50 floor with flames licking out into the sky of Trump Tower on Saturday

Todd Brassner (pictured right, left) was the 67-year-old resident who died in the fire in his apartment. He was a prominent art dealer, and close friends with famed artist Andy Warhol. He had filed for bankruptcy in 2015 with his apartment listed at $2.5million

Around 45 minutes later - before the fatality had been publicly announced - Mr Trump took to Twitter to praise firefighters for their response, saying they had extinguished the blaze.

Trump, who made his fortune in property, also attributed the construction of his eponymous tower to the fire's limited 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.

Asked if that assessment was accurate, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said, 'It's a well-built building. The upper floors, the residence floors, are not sprinklered.'

Nigro said four firefighters suffered 'non-life-threatening injuries' in the blaze - the cause of which is not yet known.

'We found fire on the 50th floor of the building. The apartment was entirely on fire. Members pushed in heroically, they were knocking down the fire and found one occupant of the apartment,' he said in comments posted by the FDNY on Twitter.

'This was a very difficult fire. As you can imagine, the apartment is quite large, we are 50 stories up.

'The rest of the building had a considerable amount of smoke. 200 Firefighters and EMS (emergency medical services) members are on scene.

'We had many floors to search, and stairways.'

During the incident, Mr Trump was in Washington DC, where he was seen at the luxury Trump International Hotel.

As well as his luxury residence, Trump Tower also contains offices of the Trump family business.

His son, Eric Trump, tweeted: 'Thank you to the amazing men and women of the NYFD who extinguished a fire in a residential apartment at @TrumpTower. The @FDNY and @NYPD are truly some of the most incredible people anywhere!'

Opened in 1983, the mixed-use skyscraper is a jewel in The Trump Organisation's real estate portfolio that includes high-end properties, hotels and golf courses.

A fire broke out at Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan on the 50th floor on Saturday around 5:30pm. The FDNY says it was a fourth alarm with well over 200 fire fighters responding

A firefighter is seen in the blown out window in the 50 story apartment where the blaze erupted Saturday at Trump Tower

President Donald Trump was in DC when they fire broke out at his New York home base. He headed out with First Lady Melania Saturday evening to the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC for dinner following the fire

The First Lady joined the president for the evening in DC after the fire broke out at their New York home base Saturday to spend time at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC

Trump and Melania leave dinner at the at Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC on Saturday evening after the fire at Trump Tower in New York

Trump and the First Lady leave dinner at Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC after Saturday evening's blaze at Trump Tower in New York City

Water is seeing spurting out the window as firefighters battled the massive blaze at Trump Tower on the 50th floor on Saturday

The massive response by the FDNY and first responders saw the streets shut down around Trump Tower Saturday as they battled the inferno that started on the 50 floor

NYPD officers and first responders asses the scene of a fire at Trump Tower on April 7, 2018 in New York City

FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro gave updates at the scene explaining the difficult blaze

Fire sprinklers were not required in New York City highrises when Trump Tower was completed in 1983.

Hours later, the president made no mention of the deceased resident on his Twitter.

Subsequent updates to the building code required commercial skyscrapers to install the sprinklers retroactively, but owners of older residential highrises are not required to install sprinklers unless the building undergoes major renovations.

Some fire-safety advocates pushed for a requirement that older apartment buildings be retrofitted with sprinklers when New York City passed a law requiring them in new residential highrises in 1999, but officials in the administration of then-mayor Rudy Giuliani said that would be too expensive.

'They were knocking down the fire, they found one occupant,' Nigro said.

'This was a very difficult fire. As you can imagine, the apartment is quite large, we are 50 stories up. The rest of the building had a considerable amount of smoke. 200 Firefighters and EMS members are on scene.'

'We found fire on the 50th floor of the building. The apartment was entirely on fire. Members pushed in heroically, they were knocking down the fire,' Nigro added.

The FDNY had to search several floors because of the smoke condition above the 50 floor.

The fire was finally declared under control at around 7:45pm.

Melania Trump and the couple's son, Barron Trump, are both in Washington, D.C., according to the first lady's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham.

Debris rained down onto the street during the fire at Trump Tower in New York on Saturday after a massive blaze broke out on the 50 floor

The gutted out windows seen here where the fire started on Saturday. The FDNY said the apartment was completely engulfed in flames when they arrived

Thick black smoke filled the the air above the blaze and settled onto 5th Avenue Saturday

Well over 200 firefighters were responding to the scene at the explosive fire inside the president's Manhattan residence in Midtown Manhattan

Some notable residents of Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan Donald Trump, Floors 66 through 68 The president occupies the penthouse sprawling over the top two floors of Trump Town in Midtown Manhattan in his namesake tower Guido Lombardi, Floors 62 through 63 Real estate investor Guido Lombardi is a self-proclaimed Italian count, as well as a Trump supporter, and sympathizer Helly Nahmad, Floor 51 Art dealer Hillel Nahmad, of the Nahmad collecting dynasty, has been snatching up apartments on the 51st floor of Trump Tower since at least 1999, when he paid $2.5 million for Unit 51J. He would be the occupant just above the floor where the fire broke out and his sprawling pad was surely overcome with smoke during Saturday's fire Ernie Garcia, Floors 48 through 49 The chairman of used car dealer DriveTime currently takes up residence in the tower. His apartment could potentially have water damage considering the massive response and water used to put out the fire on the 50 floor Paul Manafort, Floor 43 Trump's former campaign manager, who resigned in August, has lived in Trump Tower since 2006. Manafort transferred the apartment from an LLC to his name in 2015 Dennis Shields, Floor 42 The banker, and some-time boyfriend of Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel said he was alerted to evacuate Trump Tower from his childhood friend- the president's personal attorney Michael Cohen Jose Maria Marin, Floor 41 For the people that did self evacuate, Marin may not have been one of them as he is currently serving house arrest. Marin, a former administrator of the Brazilian Football Confederation who's serving a sentence in connection with bribery charges stemming from the FIFA crisis, to which he plead guilty Susetta Mion, Floor 32 Ivana Trump's pal Susetta Mion, of the Italian fashion family, has been shacked up in a Trump Tower pad after allegedly looting her mother's bank accounts and possessions Juan Beckmann Vidal, Floor 31 Vidal's name is not as well known as the liquor brand he controls: Jose Cuervo. The tequila bigwig owns three apartments in the building Source: Curbed New York Advertisement

The president is also in Washington D.C.

The president and the First Lady went to dinner at Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC Saturday evening after the fire erupted at the home base in New York.

At least five fire trucks were seen responding to the fire on Fifth Avenue.

Trump has an office and home in the building.

The 664-foot Trump Tower has 58 stories, though the top floor is numbered 68.

Nigro said Secret Service members checked on the condition of Trump's apartment.

Eric Trump also took to Twitter: 'Thank you to the amazing men and women of the NYFD who extinguished a fire in a residential apartment at @TrumpTower. The @FDNY and @NYPD are truly some of the most incredible people anywhere!'

In addition to the president's penthouse, Trump Tower houses the headquarters of the Trump Organization as well as other residences, offices and stores.

The headquarters of the Trump Organization is on the 26th floor.

Nigro noted that no member of the Trump family was in the 664-foot tower Saturday.

Trump's family has spent little time in New York since taking office.While the building was not evacuated some people chose to self-evacuate.

The streets around Trump Tower are closed on 5th Avenue between East 55th Street and East 57th Street. West 56th Street is closed from 5th Avenue to Madison Avenue.

The FDNY called this a mass emergency response and sent dozens of firetrucks to the 58 story skyscraper.

Lalitha Masson, a 76-year-old 36th-floor resident, told the New York Post the blaze was frightening.

'We're terrified. It was a very horrible experience, there was no evacuation system in place, we were at a loss of what to do. I almost fainted, I thought we would die,' she said.

'This looks similar to when 9/11 took place. My husband is disabled and we were helpless. All we could do is put wet towels under the door and pray.'

Incredibly Masson says she learned about the fire on the television from inside her 36th floor apartment.

'When I saw the television, I thought we were finished,' Masson told the New York Times. Her husband, Narinder, who is 79 has Parkinson's disease.

'I started praying That this was our end. I called my oldest son and said goodbye to him because the way it looked everything was falling out of the window, and it reminded me of 9/11.'

She said she never received an announcement to leave, and added that when she called the front desk no one answered.

One person was given a heads up to get out of the building however, and the alert did not come from building management.

Dennis Shields, who dates Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel, said he was alerted to leave the building by Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen.

Shields, who said he grew up with Cohen said: 'He said, 'Are you in the building?' I said, 'Yes.' He said, 'You better get out ASAP.' That's how I knew to get out, otherwise I'd still be in there.'

'You could smell the smoke and you could hear things falling like through the vents,' he said. 'It just smelled like sulfur.'

Shields added there were no official orders to evacuate.

Meanwhile an employee from the Gucci store all the way below on the ground floor said he could smell smoke.

'We smelled smoke coming through the vents, our clients and personnel were evacuated,' he said.

'We were assured they had it under control and it was precautionary. Definitely a noticeable smell [of smoke] coming through the vents.'

The massive response at Trump Tower called for well over 200 firefighters battling the blaze that erupted at 6pm

Streets were closed in the area as the FDNY battled the enormous blaze that erupted in the New York City home base of the president around 6pm

People in the streets stopped to watch the flames exploding through the windows at Trump Tower on Saturday

People on the streets of New York stopped to capture the incredible scene at the president's Manhattan residence

Circa 1980: People riding the escalators inside Trump Tower, New York City in the glittering interior of the president's New York City headquarters where a fatal fire broke out Saturday

Trump Tower boasts high end luxury. However residents complained they were not alerted to evacuate during Saturday's deadly blaze on the 50 floor

The FDNY said the interior of apartment 50C was massive which made fighting the fire more difficult

A lack of sprinklers on the floor where the fire erupted Saturday also contributed to the dangerous condition

The luxury apartments at Trump Tower are home to some of New York City's wealthiest elite who say they were not giving an evacuation plan and could not reach the front desk when the fire erupted Saturday

There was a minor fire just three months ago in a cooling tower on the roof of the Midtown skyscraper, in which two people suffered minor injuries.

'We had one minor injury to a firefighter, some debris fell on him,' FDNY Chief Roger Sakowich said at the time. 'We had one engineer that got up there with a fire extinguisher and breathed in some of the smoke, but he's refused medical.'

The high-rise houses both residences and businesses.

REVEALED: Trump Tower blaze victim was an art dealer who was friends with Andy Warhol but had filed for bankruptcy and was in arrears with the mortgage on his $2.5m apartment Todd Brassner was the 67-year-old art dealer who died in Saturday's Trump Tower inferno. He was close friends with Andy Warhol, and had fallen on hard times, filing for bankruptcy in 2015. Brassner was found unconscious Saturday inside his sprawling 50th floor apartment that FDNY Commissioner Dan Nigro described as completely engulfed in flames. Brassner was mentioned multiple times in Warhol's autobiography, according to the New York Daily News. Warhol said he and Brassner grabbed lunch together at a Warhol's factory on Broadway in December 1976. Several months later, Brassner called Warhol to tell him that he just saw Muhammad Ali in the Polo Lounge, according to 'The Andy Warhol Diaries.' Todd Brassner (pictured) was the 67-year-old resident who died in the fire in his apartment at Trump Towers He was a prominent art dealer, and close friends with Andy Warhol Brassner and Andy Warhol were close friends, and the art dealer had sold a self portrait of the artist in 2007 Brassner and Warhol did several sales together of the artist's famed pop-art, including a 1967 self-portrait that went for $601,000 in 2007. Brassner owned a 1978 Marilyn Monroe print by Warhol that the artist inscribed 'to Todd.' However, Brassner had filed for bankrupcy in 2015 after dealing with a series of issues that caused him to fall in arrears on his mortgage. The president tweeted a thank you to first responders on Saturday shortly after the fire started, praising the intergrity of his building. 'Fire at Trump Tower is out. Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!' RELATED ARTICLES Previous

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Next ¿Your lack of empathy is pathological¿: President Trump is... 'Hoping there is major damage': Twitter is flooded with... ¿Your lack of empathy is pathological¿: President Trump is... Share this article Share Trump continued to tweet through the evening, but never referenced the fire, or the tenant of the Trump Organization that had died in the blaze. The FDNY tells DailyMail.com six firefighters also sustained non-life threatening injuries. During a press conference at the scene, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said 'the apartment was virtually, entirely on fire' when firefighters arrived. When asked if the president's assessment of the building being well built was accurate, Nigro said, 'It's a well built building. The upper floors, the residence floors, are not sprinklered.' Fire sprinklers were not required in New York City highrises when Trump Tower was completed in 1983. Subsequent updates to the building code required commercial skyscrapers to install the sprinklers retroactively, but owners of older residential highrises are not required to install sprinklers unless the building undergoes major renovations. Brassner had filed for bankruptcy in 2015 with his apartment listed at $2.5million and was unable to keep up with his mortgage, despite a lucrative career as an art dealer and working closely with Andy Warhol The fire wrapped around the 50th floor and angled out through several windows in Trump Tower, the New York City home base of the president, in Midtown Manhattan Saturday A firefighter is seen in the blown out window in Brassner's apartment, 50C, where the blaze erupted Saturday at Trump Tower The view from Brassner's window as posted by the art dealer to his Facebook page in 2016 'They were knocking down the fire, they found one occupant,' Nigro said. 'This was a very difficult fire. As you can imagine, the apartment is quite large, we are 50 stories up. The rest of the building had a considerable amount of smoke. 200 Firefighters and EMS members are on scene.' 'We found fire on the 50th floor of the building. The apartment was entirely on fire. Members pushed in heroically, they were knocking down the fire,' Nigro added. The FDNY had to search several floors because of the smoke condition above the 50 floor. The fire was finally declared under control at around 7:45pm. Advertisement