(1) The real story of the Trump Tower fire is nothing to do with politics, Trump, or sprinkler regulations. It has to do with smoke alarms, chronic illness, and the legal way a family can care for an adult loved one against their wishes.
foxnews.com/us/2018/04/08/…
foxnews.com/us/2018/04/08/…
(2) 67 year old Todd Brassner came from a very wealthy family & bought his large apt in 1996. In recent years he suffered from "debilitating medical problems that have made it difficult for him to function." Despite his wealth, he filed for bankruptcy.
nypost.com/2018/04/08/det…
nypost.com/2018/04/08/det…
(3) Sprinklers are just one of many components of a fire safety system. The most important one is working smoke alarms. Every place where people sleep should have them. They are inexpensive and even free in some situations. The disabled can get someone to change the batteries.
(4) Hard wired smoke alarms are even better. You can install a system that alerts you if the power supply fails or the battery runs out. Next you need an escape plan. In most cases, the alarm activates early enough for you to get out by crawling along the floor under the smoke.
(5) A chronically ill person may have a delayed ability to wake up, from medication side effects or the illness itself. People in this situation should not live alone. An able bodied person can hear the smoke alarm, get to you, and drag you out of the burning apartment.
(6) The FDNY said the whole of the large apartment was engulfed by the fire when they arrived. Firefighters wear flame resistant clothing and breathing apparatus, equipping them to risk their lives by going into the fire to rescue people. They are often injured doing this.
(7) Many civilians are killed by going into a burning building to rescue people and pets, because we don't have the protective equipment firefighters do. As painful as it is to resist going in, we have to. Modern furnishings are extremely flammable.
(8) Home fires are predominantly caused by things like electrical faults, a heat source too close to combustibles, cigarettes, a child playing with a lighter, or from cooking food unsafely. Foul play can also happen, but I tend to assume an accidental cause until more is known.
(9) It would not be unusual for a chronically ill person to be asleep at 6pm on a Saturday night. Mr Brassner could have been awake but the circumstances of the fire meant he did not get out in time. We also don't know yet if stored items impeded his exit.
(10) The FDNY reported that he was unconscious and unresponsive when found. Smoke inhalation or something else could be the cause. The available info suggests smoke alarms did not activate and/or he did not get out in time. This is not the responsibility of the building owner.
(11) The building owner's responsibility is to comply with the law at the time of construction and since. It is not unusual for such buildings not to have sprinklers and it is not necessary. The building performed satisfactorily by containing the fire to the apartment.
(12) Personally, I would prefer to live in a high rise with sprinklers, but clearly the 200+ apartment owners find the situation satisfactory. With working smoke alarms and if necessary, able bodied people on site to rescue the disabled, no one would die in a fire there.
(13) I have the utmost empathy and sympathy for Todd Brassner, his loved ones, and everyone affected by this preventable tragedy. Also for all the first responders, including the 6 injured firefighters.
(14) The FDNY, the NY city council, the Trump Organization, and apartment owners will investigate what is within their responsibility to do differently in future. Hopefully other occupants of high rise buildings with or without sprinklers will do the same.
(15) My interpretation of the available information about Mr Brassner and his family is that they tried all they could to help him but, as is often the case, he kept control of his life and his decisions. He may have been unaware that his apartment was not fire safe.
(16) I have no information about his state of mind before his death, but piecing things together, this case reminded me of the wider issue of the legal way a family can care for an adult loved one against their wishes. I wrote about that here:
(17) The Nikolas Cruz case was an obvious example of a person with very high needs who should have received a professional intervention. I doubt Mr Brassner's needs, if any, were as obvious. It's the overall principle I'm talking about.
(18) I'm familiar with adult care orders in NZ, from prev. work experience in the area. Compared to the US, it is relatively easy in NZ to get a court order enabling a family to arrange proper support for an adult who isn't able to keep themselves safe in all areas of their life.
(19) The lack of a user friendly, affordable and rapid legal mechanism for the care of mentally impaired adults in the US should be treated as a national emergency. There are countless examples of preventable suffering, harm and deaths because of it.
(20) The controversies over the Trump Tower fire of 4/7/18 stem from the lack of critical thinking shown mostly by those on the political left. The first order of business *should* be identifying which people are responsible for which things.
(21) The left rightly required Trump to separate himself from his private property interests for the duration of his terms of office. Of course, they then want to have it both ways by blaming him for things that would even be out of his control if he still ran the company.
(22) He was right to tweet about the fire when he did. Given the extremely high profile of the building, people all over the world wanted to know if the fire was a national security issue or not. That is his role as POTUS, to deal with national-interest matters.
(23) He threw in the part about the well-built building because he knew darn well what the left were going to say, regardless of the outcome. It's factual. The solid design and construction contained the fire, saving hundreds of lives.
(24) IMO he then declined to tweet further, because that would have meant capitulating to the demands of the braying mob, and we have seen what happened when Laura Ingraham did that. Trump knows how to handle these things and will take a temporary PR hit before bowing to them.
(25) The left's favorite talking point about the President's tweet about the fire is that he was "heartless." To that I say:
Whataboutism is a moral necessity.
And I can easily provide hundreds of concrete examples of Democrat heartlessness.
Whataboutism is a moral necessity.
And I can easily provide hundreds of concrete examples of Democrat heartlessness.
(26) In summary, the MSM & social media reactions to this tragedy expose the real beliefs & intent of many on the left.
All of politics comes down to individualism vs collectivism. History proves only one of these promotes human wellbeing. It's why the USA was founded.
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All of politics comes down to individualism vs collectivism. History proves only one of these promotes human wellbeing. It's why the USA was founded.
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(27) @threadreaderapp unroll please, thank you.
(28) Unrolled version: threadreaderapp.com/thread/9831209…
(29) ADDENDUM: More information on Todd Brassner is coming to light. It's prompted me to realize that at the time POTUS tweeted about the fire, he would have known exactly who owned that apartment. And he would have been updated on recent events.
(30) A highly anti-Trump article from the failing NYT, as you'd expect.
Look, we all know that a home CAN be sold if the price meets the market. Others have sold Trump Tower apartments since 2016.
nytimes.com/2018/04/08/nyr…
Look, we all know that a home CAN be sold if the price meets the market. Others have sold Trump Tower apartments since 2016.
nytimes.com/2018/04/08/nyr…
(31) Brassner felt his home was worth $2.5 million. I put it to you that the contents of his hoarded apartment & other assets were worth many times that. Maybe $100 million? We'll never know.
Supremely foolish not to clear out that stuff before now.
Supremely foolish not to clear out that stuff before now.
(32) Now that I know Brassner lived the high life for 50 years among the New York elites, profited from living in the most iconic Trump-associated building, then trashed the President after he won the election, I see him in a different light. Also...
(33) There's this info about his family. It's clear that POTUS knew Jules Brassner, the late father of Todd Brassner, very well. palmbeachpost.com/news/breaking-…
(34) Time to start thread #2 on this topic. In thread #1 I've worked from basic info about the nature of the fire itself to draw inferences about fire safety measures, & I've commented on the first-few-hours political context. Thread #2 is slightly different.
(34) Thread #2 will look at the lead-up to the fire, in terms of the last few years of Mr Brassner's life. Even before the fire, he was a public figure, and IMO the high-profile nature of his tragic death means discussing it is in the public interest. His choices affected others.
(35) Thread #2 is here:
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