January 08, 2018
Smoke billowed from the rooftop of Trump Tower as emergency crews responded early Monday morning to a small electrical fire, according to authorities.
At about sunrise, a New York Police Department spokesman said, a call came in about a one-alarm fire on the roof of the 68-floor luxury building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. There were no evacuations, the spokesman said, and firefighters were on the scene within minutes.
Fire officials could not immediately be reached for comment, but FDNY tweeted an alert at 8:16 a.m., saying that the blaze, which was located inside an HVAC system, was soon “under control.”
President Trump, who has a penthouse condominium at Trump Tower, was in Washington on Monday morning, according to his public schedule.
“There was a small electrical fire in a cooling tower on the roof of Trump Tower,” the Trump Organization said in an emailed statement to The Washington Post. “The FDNY were here within minutes and did an exceptional job. Everything is under control and no evacuations were made.”
Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons and the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, made a similar statement about it on Twitter.
New York police said that no injuries had been reported, but CW affiliate WPIX reported that a firefighter was injured by falling debris and an engineer inhaled smoke while attempting to put out the fire.
The Manhattan high rise bears the name of President Trump, who lived there with his family before moving to the White House. Trump Tower was also the setting for the developer-turned-president’s reality TV show, “The Apprentice,” and the headquarters of his presidential campaign.