When a fire erupted in a 50th-floor apartment at New York City’s Trump Tower, there was one thing lacking that may have helped save 67-year-old Todd Brassner’s life: sprinklers. “It’s a well-built building,” Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. “The upper floors, the resident floors, are not sprinklered.” Six firefighters were injured in the blaze. “This was a very difficult fire,” Nigro said. “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.”

The 58-story building was completed in 1983, which was several years before sprinkler systems were mandated in all of the city’s residential buildings. Two decades ago, Donald Trump was one of the real estate developers who successfully pushed back against a proposal that would have required sprinklers in all of the high rises in New York City.

Lots of emergency activity around Trump Tower in NYC. Fire on the upper floors. Hoping everyone is safe. #trumptower #trumptowerfire pic.twitter.com/iupoZhoA1v

— Will Taylor (@brightbazaar) April 7, 2018

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After two fatal fires in Brooklyn and Manhattan in 1998 that killed seven people, the City Council debated legislation that would have required sprinklers in all residential buildings. Trump got to work donating and lobbying legislators to not approve the bill, arguing it would be too expensive for his buildings at around $4 per square foot at the time (around $6 today). In the end, then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani signed a measure into law in 1999 that required sprinklers in all apartment buildings with four or more units but made an exception for older buildings unless they underwent major renovations.

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Brassner, who died in his Trump Tower apartment, was an art collector and dealer who spent time with Andy Warhol but had recently fallen on hard times and even went through bankruptcy proceedings. Over the last few years Brassner had been “plagued with debilitating medical problems that have made it difficult for him to function,” according to documents cited by the Associated Press.

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#TrumpTower fire victim ID'd as Todd Brassner, art dealer who sold Warhol prints: reports https://t.co/CJPse0jmeY

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 8, 2018

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