Where There's Fire...

To get a handle on what a total selfish bastard Donald Trump is, get a load of his response to the fire in Trump Tower on Saturday. 

The fire broke out in an apartment  the 50th floor of the building just before 6 p.m. Saturday.  Forcing their way into the unit, firefighters pulled out one person, unconscious and unresponsive, who had been trapped inside. The man was taken to the hospital in critical condition where he later died.Neanwhile, six firefighters — of the roughly 200 or so who had responded — suffered minor injuries fighting the blaze. 

What was Donald Trump's first thought about the fire? 

“Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

Trump immediately de-emphasizes the fire itself. "Very confined."  

Yes, Trump Tower is a very tall building. Yes, being limited to the 50th floor would be considered "very confined". But by all accounts it was a furious blaze that was stopped only with considerable effort of approximately 200 fire fighters. 

His next thought was to brag about the construction of Trump Tower.  "well built building".   

Immediately, Trump goes on the defensive, diminishing the impact of the fire and takes credit for it not being worse. Essentially, "fire was limited because I put up a well-built building."  

He actually does think of others. "Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!”

What's that "and women" stuff? If he wanted to be inclusive, he could just have said "firefighters". Instead, adding women as a parenthetical is just another demonstration of Trump's disregard for women, as an after-thought. 

OK, I might be a bit pendantic here. At least he remembered to thank the firefighters and also remembered that women could be firefighters too.  

Also, Trump went on to declare the fire was extinguished — before it actually had been. The fire was still not considered to be under control before Trump's tweet because of smoke conditions above the 50th floor,. It was brought under control shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday, about an hour after Trump’s tweet, fire officials said.

Here's what New York Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro had to say about all this: “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.”

While Trump offered a blanket "thank you to the "firemen (and women)” who responded to the blaze, he has said nothing those firefighters who had suffered injuries.

Trump has also said nothing about Todd Brassner, the Trump Tower resident who died at Mount Sinai Hospital.

Trump's Twitter was working just fine Sunday morning where he bitched about the “rigged” investigation into Hillary Clinton.  

Here's something under the heading of cruel irony.  In the 1990s and early 2000s, Trump lobbied against a bill that would have required sprinklers to be installed in all residential buildings in New York. 

There were no sprinklers were in place in the upper residential floors of Trump Tower, where the fire broke out.

Lalitha Mason, who lives on the 36th floor of Trump Tower, had this to say: "It was a very horrible experience . . . there was no evacuation system in place . . . we were at a loss of what to do. I almost fainted. I thought we would die. My husband is disabled and we were helpless. All we could do is put wet towels under the door and pray."  

Mrs. Mason should take comfort that the fire was "very confined (in a) well built building."