Civilian killed, four firefighters wounded in Trump Tower blaze in NYC

NEW YORK: At least one person was killed and four firefighters received minor injuries in an apartment fire on the 50th floor of Trump Tower in New York on Saturday, in a blaze that was quickly extinguished, fire officials said.

The victim, a male resident, died at the hospital and has not yet been identified, they said.

US President Donald Trump, who has an office and a private residence in the midtown Manhattan structure, was not in the building at the time but said the blaze had been extinguished.

“Fire at Trump Tower is out. Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!” Trump tweeted.

About 200 fire personnel responded to the incident that the department said was a four-alarm fire.

'Difficult fire'

Fire officials have not yet released a suspected cause of the blaze, adding no member of the Trump family was in the building at the time.

"We had many floors to search, and stairways, and right now the only civilian injury is to the occupant of that apartment. There are four Firefighters with non-life-threatening injuries," Daniel Nigro, the Commissioner at the New York Fire Department (NYFD), said.

However, "the fire is still not considered to be under control because of the smoke conditions on all the floors above."

“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,” Nigro said on Twitter.

"There is currently one serious injury to a civilian reported," the NYFD wrote on its Twitter earlier, before the casualties were officially disclosed.

Smoke had risen from the skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan around 6:00 PM (2200 GMT) but subsided later as the NYFD quickly responded to the blaze.

The fire authority, which tweeted a picture of the building showing flames, had previously categorised it as a three-alarm blaze. However, the fire appeared to have been contained as firefighters made their way into the building.

Streets surrounding the building — that serves as the headquarters for The Trump Organization and houses a penthouse — were closed off.

Social media videos showed a small fire that was visible from the structure in centre Manhattan.

In January, three people were injured in an early-morning fire at the top of Trump Tower. One firefighter was hospitalised while two people received minor injuries that were treated at the scene, the NYFD said.

In addition to the president’s 66th-floor penthouse, Trump Tower houses the headquarters of the Trump Organization as well as other residences, offices, and stores.

NOTE: Images and videos obtained from social media have not been independently verified by Geo.tv