At least four people were injured in a fire that broke out in the 33-storey former Trump Tower in Baku on April 28. 

The building was originally planned as a Trump Tower, but never opened after the Trump Organisation withdrew its licensing agreement for the building following Donald Trump’s victory in the November 2016 US presidential election. 

The fire tore through most of the recently completed building, starting on the top floor and burning down through around 20 storeys before firefighters brought it under control. 

Footage from the scene — including a video posted on YouTube that appears to have been shot surreptitiously through a curtained window — shows flamed bursting from the windows, as firefighters train jets of water on the blaze. 

The Trump Tower project was leased to Garant Holding, a business conglomerate owned by Anar Mammadov,  the son of former Azeri transport minister Ziya Mammadov, in 2012. The licensing deal was scrapped after the Trump Organization said it would withdraw from international projects that could post a conflict of interest after Trump’s inauguration as president. 

Leaked US embassy cables describe Mammadov senior as corrupt even by Azerbaijani standards. Meanwhile, his son's business has a near-monopoly on activities related to the transport sector, like bus and taxi services in Baku, after winning a suspiciously high number of government tenders for transport projects.

Alan Garten, the Trump Organisation's general counsel, said in December 2016 that cancelling the project was a “housekeeping measure”. 

Between 2014 and 2016, the Trump Organisation received almost $3mn from Mammadov, Bloomberg claimed at the time. 

The fire at the Baku high-rise came just weeks after the deadly fire at the Trump International Hotel in New York, in which one person was killed.