Reply #22: "Steel buildings collapse due to fire fairly frequently." [View All]

[petgoat]

Steel-frame supermarkets, warehouses, and sports pavilions collapse.

City highrises do not. 434 FDNY men died because collapse was
inconceivable. When they reached the damage zone at the 78th floor on
the south tower they spoke calmly of "knocking down" a couple of
isolated fires. They didn't say anything about any raging infernos or
any sagging floors. According to NOVA, most structural engineers were
surprised when the towers collapsed. (1)

Brian Clark walked down from the 84th floor right through the damage
zone. He saw flames, but no inferno, and stopped at the 31st floor to
make some phone calls. As he walked away from the building, a friend
said he thought it might collapse. Clark said "No way! That's a
steel-frame building." (2)

Most of the jet fuel in the south tower burned up in the fireball
outside the building. The lead investigator for NIST said the jet
fuel burned off in ten minutes.

Interviews with FDNY personnel were released last August after the NYT
sued to get them. Any number of firemen report hearing explosions and
seeing flashes of light--and these are people who should be familiar
with the normal kinds of sounds and happenings at fires. (3)


1. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wtc/dyk.html

2. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wtc/above.html

3. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=51793&mesg_id=51793