BAKU, 28 April 2018:
A skyscraper in the capital of Azerbaijan – that was once slated to become a Trump Tower – caught fire today, burning for hours as road closures due to a Grand Prix race made it harder to put out the blaze, the Interfax news agency reported.
No one was hurt in the fire at the 33-floor business centre in Baku, Interfax cited Etibar Mirzoev, the deputy head of the Emergency Situations Ministry, as saying, adding that authorities were trying to work out what had caused it.
The building, which remains unfinished, was previously associated with US president Donald Trump who had agreed to turn it into a hotel and apartment complex that would bear his name.
However, the Trump Organisation ended its affiliation with the project in December 2016 after Trump’s White House win.
Baku is hosting a Formula 1 Grand Prix race tomorrow and Mirzoev was cited as saying that associated road closures meant fire engines had struggled to reach the site of the fire, which is why it had taken more than three hours to put it out.
Earlier this month, one man was killed and six fire fighters received minor injuries in an apartment fire on the 50th floor of the Trump Tower in New York.
– Reuters