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The fire on the 50th floor New York City’s Trump Tower that left 67-year-old Todd Brassner dead and six firefighters injured was the second fire in the building in 2018 — President Trump’s centerpiece Manhattan skyscraper built that opened in 1984, but which does not have sprinklers on its residential floors. FDNY commissioner Daniel Nigro noted on Saturday that the upper, residential floors of Trump Tower do not have sprinklers — a measure required in new buildings since 1999, but which President Trump, then a private citizen and property developer, lobbied to try and prevent.
New York City in 1999 became last big city in the nation to require sprinklers, according to the New York Daily News. Under the 1999 legislation, buildings constructed before then were only required to have sprinklers if they underwent gut renovations.
According to The New York Times, Mr. Trump was one of the developers in the late 1990s who lobbied against sprinklers in buildings. He then recanted once the legislation passed with grandfathering provisions that meant existing buildings did not need to install them, saying that he understood they made residents “feel safer.” Commissioner Nigro said on Saturday that there is extra fire protection at Trump Tower when Mr. Trump is there.
Then New York city mayor and now staunch Trump ally Rudy Giuliani signed the bill requiring sprinklers into force on March 24, 1999, having opposed it when it was first proposed in 1997. The legislation was spurred on by a major fire in a so-called “fireproof” apartment block with no sprinklers on New York’s Upper West Side the previous December, and another in a Brooklyn housing project the same month in which hallway sprinklers failed. Survivors wanted all buildings to have sprinklers, but the legislation that was passed was not retrospective, much to the delight of existing property owners who cited cost as a major reason not to be compelled to retrofit their buildings. At the time the legislation was being discussed, Mr. Trump had just started construction on a 72-story tower near the United Nations, and he subsequently said he would install sprinklers there at a cost of $3 million.
Saturday’s fire is the second fire in Mr. Trump’s 5th Avenue building this year: Two civilians suffered minor injuries and a firefighter was hurt by debris in a fire on Jan. 8.The Jan. 8 fire on the top of the building was an electrical fire, Mr. Trump’s son, Eric, said at the time. Eric Trump said the fire had been in a cooling tower.
Nigro said in a press conference that the cause of Saturday’s fire is still unclear.
Mr. Trump tweeted shortly after the fire broke out that his building is “well-built.” Nigro agreed at the press conference that it’s a “well-built building.”
“The building sure stood up quite well,” Nigro said. There is considerable smoke damage to the upper floors. Nigro said units checked Mr. Trump’s residence on the upper floors.
Neither Mr. Trump or any of his family were in the building at the time of the fire. Mr. Trump and his wife, Melania, were at Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. on Saturday night. Eric Trump lives in the nearby Trump Parc building, which is located on Central Park South.
While it’s unclear how many fires have been at the building since it opened in 1984, a severe fire in 1982 set construction back two months, according to amNewYork.
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Rep. Blake Farenthold, a Texas Republican who was facing an ethics investigation after using taxpayer funds to settle a sexual harassment claim from a former staffer, abruptly resigned his seat Friday.
Farenthold had announced in December that he would not seek reelection in November, but until Friday, he appeared determined to serve out his fourth term in the House.
He said in a statement Friday that he had sent a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) resigning his seat effective 5 p.m. Friday.
“While I planned on serving out the remainder of my term in Congress, I know in my heart it’s time for me to move along and look for new ways to serve,” he said in the statement, in which he thanked his staff, family and constituents but offered no further rationale for his immediate resignation.
In December, the House Ethics Committee said it would probe not only the allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation, but also whether Farenthold might have lied or omitted facts while giving testimony to the panel, and also whether he improperly used House resources to benefit his political campaign. Farenthold’s resignation brings that investigation to an immediate end.
There is, however, one unsettled matter: Farenthold publicly promised in December to repay taxpayers the $84,000 that was paid to his former communications director, Lauren Greene, who alleged in a 2014 lawsuit that he had discussed having sexual fantasies and “wet dreams” about her and that he had fired her after she complained about his behavior.
Despite Farenthold’s pledge, he has not made any payment to date. A spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an email asking whether he still intended to reimburse taxpayers.
The chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio), jabbed Farenthold on the matter in a statement responding to his resignation: “I hope Blake is true to his word and pays back the $84,000 of taxpayer money he used as a settlement. As I have said repeatedly, Congress must hold ourselves to a higher standard and regain the trust of the American people.”
While Texas law allows the governor to call an emergency election to fill a vacant congressional seat, a Republican official familiar with the circumstances surrounding Farenthold’s resignation said that no election will be held to fill the seat before November.
Paul Kane contributed to this report.
Read more at PowerPost
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