A Fire Broke Out On The 50th Floor Of Trump Tower

On Saturday, in the heart of Manhattan, a fire broke out in Trump Tower, the colossal skyscraper owned by President Donald Trump. In a tweet sent at 6:42 p.m. ET on Saturday, Trump claimed that the fire had been put out, and credited the construction of his building with helping to contain the blaze.

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

News of the fire first hit social media, with passersby capturing video of flames and black smoke streaming out of one of the building's upper floors. It's since been confirmed by the New York Fire Department that the fire broke out on the 50th floor of the tower, and surged to four-alarm status. The address of the building, which Trump made his primary residence for decades prior to becoming president, is 731 5th Avenue.

One of the president's adult sons, Eric Trump, also tweeted about the fire on Saturday evening, just a few minutes before his father did. He also offered some praise for the FDNY and the NYPD, both of which responded to the fire.

"Thank you to the amazing men and women of the NYFD who extinguished a fire in a residential apartment at @TrumpTower," he tweeted. "The @FDNY and @NYPD are truly some of the most incredible people anywhere!" Eric is an executive in the Trump Organization, which is based out of the president's eponymous Trump Tower.

The 50th floor of Trump Tower is far below the president and first lady's dwellings; according to The New York Times, their residences occupy parts of the building's 66th through 68th floors. Although Melania Trump initially continued living in the tower after he husband's inauguration, she eventually moved to the White House in the summer of 2017.

The building first opened in 1983, and is one of the iconic properties that Trump owns outright, along with his Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida. It is also the headquarters of his private company, and includes floors full of residential apartments.

It's not yet clear precisely what caused the fire, as the FDNY has not yet identified a cause. At 7:28 p.m. ET, the FDNY tweeted out an update that firefighters were still on the scene, and that one civilian has been seriously injured in the fire. Three firefighters were also injured, although according to the department they are not considered life-threatening.

Trump, to be clear, was nowhere near the tower when the fire began ― it reportedly broke out at about 5:30 p.m. ET, and spread across multiple units before being extinguished at 6:45 p.m. ET. Since becoming president, he's spent the vast majority of his time either at the White House in Washington, D.C. or as Mar-a-Lago, in addition to his golf clubs. On Saturday, he remained in the nation's capital.

According to NBC News, a total of four firefighters sustained "minor" injuries in the blaze, but one injured civilian is reportedly in critical condition.

FDNY commissioner Daniel Nigro provided the media with some updates in a press conference, revealing that the fire began inside a residential apartment, and that by the time firefighters had arrived on the scene, it was "virtually, entirely on fire."

According to NBC New York, Nigro also confirmed that the injured civilian ― a male resident of the apartment that caught fire ― has been transported to St. Luke's Hospital. This is the second time there's been a fire in the president's building this year, with the previous one happening in January, reportedly the result of an electrical problem. That fire also hurt three people, and forced one to the hospital, although none of the injuries were life-threatening.