Facebook

Trump Tower Fire Victim Wanted to Sell Apartment After Presidential Election, Friend Says

However, according to friend Stephen Dwire, "when people heard it was a Trump building, he couldn’t give it away," the Times reported

What to Know

  • A fire erupted at an apartment on the 50th floor of Trump Tower Saturday evening, killing a 67-year-old resident and injuring 6 firefighters
  • The victim, ID'd as Todd Brassner, art collector who spent time with Andy Warhol; he had reportedly fallen on hard times in recent years
  • The cause of the fire has not been released by officials

The man killed in a blaze at Trump Tower was an art collector who fell on hard financial times in recent years and had reportedly been trying to sell his 50th-floor apartment there since President Trump was elected.

Todd Brassner, 67, died on Saturday at a hospital after a fire tore through his apartment in the high-rise, which was constructed at a time when building codes did not require the residential section to have sprinklers.

Brassner, who records show bought his unit in 1996, spent time with Andy Warhol and is mentioned several times in the artist's posthumously published diaries, with references including lunch dates and shared taxis. Warhol signed and dedicated at least one print to him.

But in recent years, Brassner came upon money difficulties. According to documents, his family had stopped helping him pursue buying and selling art at the end of 2014, and he went through bankruptcy proceedings. In the last few years he had been "plagued with debilitating medical problems that have made it difficult for him to function."

Friends of Brassner told The New York Times he had tried to sell the apartment after Donald Trump was elected president and increased security made living in the Fifth Avenue building feel like an "armed camp." However, according to friend Stephen Dwire, "when people heard it was a Trump building, he couldn’t give it away," the Times reported. 

The fire sent thick, black smoke pouring from the windows of the skyscraper that bears the president's name.

The Department of Buildings said Sunday the building did have working hard-wired smoke detectors, and that the fire department was first notified of the blaze by the detectors in the building's heating and ventilation system. 

A cause had not yet been determined.

FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the apartment was "virtually entirely on fire" when firefighters arrived.

A senior FDNY official briefed on the investigation told NBC News that there was no working smoke alarm found in Brassner's apartment.

Fire sprinklers were not required in New York City high-rises 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 high-rises 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.

Trump was among the developers who spoke out against the retrofitting as expensive and unnecessary.

No member of the Trump family was in the 664-foot tower on Saturday.

Trump's family has an apartment on the top floors of the 58-story building, but he has spent little time in New York since taking office. The headquarters of the Trump Organization is on the 26th floor.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
Contact Us