Fire Hits Former Trump Tower In Baku

Fire Hits Former Trump Tower In Baku

April 28, 2018 14:23 GMT

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BAKU -- A fire broke out at an unfinished skyscraper in Azerbaijan's capital that once was intended to be a Trump-branded hotel, burning for three hours before firefighters extinguished the blaze.

Eldar Mirzayev, deputy minister of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, said on April 28 no casualties were reported and it was unclear what caused the fire in Baku.

Video footage showed smoke billowing from the 33-floor hotel and condominium tower, one of the tallest buildings in Baku.

Quoted by the private APA news agency, Mirzayev said firefighters were delayed arriving at the scene, although he did not say why.

Many streets in Baku are currently blocked as the city hosts the Formula-1 Grand Prix. F1 drivers are due to race the Baku city circuit on April 29.

The Trump Organization canceled its licensing deal for the planned hotel in December 2016, one month after Donald Trump was elected U.S. president.

The company had partnered on the project with Anar Mammadov, the son of the transport minister of Azerbaijan at the time, Ziya Mammadov.

The elder Mammadov was suspected by U.S. diplomats of laundering money for Iran's military, according to leaked diplomatic cables made available in 2010.

Earlier this month, one man was killed and six firefighters were slightly injured in an apartment fire on the 50th floor of the Trump Tower in New York.

With reporting by APA and Reuters