Reply #28: Now I am even more upset [View All]

[Endimion]

Do you know what is solder??
An alloy made of lead and tin. Percentage of each are varying (20-97.5% Pb), but common one is Pb:Sn=60:40
At least in Europe.

The highest temperature of melting for this alloy is 327.5°C, which would be Pb:Sn=100:0, meaning pure lead.
Pure lead is easy to melt in an open fire, or even on a big candle flame if you have the patience, lead fits in your melting pot, and you are heating small ammounts.

If you are reffereng to solder wire, then I must say I am surprised.
Will something melt in fire or not depends on lots of things. Not just the melting point.
You have the volume of material, texture of surface, time of exposure to certain temperature, impurrities, temperature of the flame, composition of the flame (yes, that exists too!),....

Comparing solder wire and WTC steel (over inch thick on floors with fire) is not wise.
Your solder is a poor heat conductor, thin (wires also have Nh4Cl+organic compound inside, making them even more thinner) and you'll keep it in fire until you melt it all.

WTC steel was a structural steel. No way to melt in ordinary fires. Absolutely no way. Those smouldering fires had lots of carbon soot in them, so when that kind of flame comes in touch with walls/columns it applies the soot and protects the steel. Fires were not burning on the same spots all the time. They shifted, and suffocated.
Some speak about molten aluminium, too. I say check the maps. Looks like there were extreme piles of aluminium all neatly packed in big metallic pies, ready for suffocating fire to eat them.
Damn it, there were more than a dozen of big puddles, all caught by satellite IC sensors.

Regarding house fires. What is a typical American house made of?
Wood. Not like here in Europe, where people build brick/stone/reinforced concrete houses. Of course you'll have an inferno in a wooden house. I've heard for glass and metal melting. That is a common thing in a wodden house with a lot of windows.
European family houses are remarkably strong in fires. They do not collapse. You don't finish with a pile of coal. You get a sterilized appartment ready for painting. :)