Slide #32-35 - Flame Engulfed Buildings

This slide, this slide, this slide, and this slide are actually the same slide, revealed part by part during Gage's presentation. At his website, Gage shows this effect by reproducing it twice or three times with new information revealed on subsequent slides. However, I'm going to treat this slide and others like it on a single page.

The Four Buildings Gage Compares To 7 World Trade

All four building fires referenced by Gage in this slide have qualities that seem to recommend them to a fruitful comparison with 7 World Trade. And yet each proves to be illustrative contrasts that show just how inevitable the collapse of 7 World Trade was.

First: the Aon Center in Los Angeles, known as the First Interstate Bank building, was built very much like the 3 WTC towers in that it was a steel-framed tube-in-tube design. This fire also started on the 12th floor, thus having a great deal of the mass bearing down on the fire-stricken floors. Yet a Herculean effort by singleminded LA first responders managed to choke the fire dead in three and a half hours, half the time that 7 World Trade was allowed to burn. They also managed to contain the fire to only four and a half floors, while fires were reported in at least thirteen floors scattered throughout 7 World Trade.

Second: the East Tower of Caracas, Venezuela's Parque Central. It burned an amazing 26 hours over 17 floors. Yet the fire started high, on the 34th floor, and had its own incredible suppression effort from a far smaller firefighting team. They managed to hold the fire to five floors for seven hours. Even after the fire breeched the concrete macrofloor on the 39th floor following pump problems, the main structural supports held since they were completely located on the outside of the building and were concrete reinforced, unlike the 3 WTC buildings.

Third: One New York Plaza, one block from the WTC site, which caught fire in August 1970. It burned about six hours, a similar time to 7 World Trade. But it also started high in the building (33rd floor), and the concentrated effort of the first responders held the fire to Floors 32-36. It also has a concrete-reinforced core.

Finally: One Meridian Plaza in Philadelphia, which burned for over 19 hours. It also has a steel-framed tube-in-tube design similar to the 3 WTC buildings. And yet it was different as well. One side of the core tube was adjacent to the south perimeter wall, giving it a leg up in stability. The fire started high, on the 22nd floor, and firefighters again managed to keep it to eight floors during those nineteen hours. The fire was finally hobbled when an operable sprinkler system on the 30th floor allowed the firefighters to get the upper hand.

Look again at those five buildings. Only one of those buildings had multiple fires on different floors simultaneously. Only one had fires reported in the first ten floors of the building. Only one had no fire suppression effort during the entire burn, whether human or mechanical. Only one had severe structural damage from the very outset of the fire, hampering its ability to redistribute loads.

Only one was built over a ConEd electrical substation, necessitating an odd cantilevered structure to keep weight off the other building. Only one was reported to be leaning severely. Only one had a slowly growing deformation measured by firefighting officials, causing them to abandon the building. Only one happened during such an enormous emergency in which the attentions of first responders were drawn elsewhere by necessity.

Only one of these buildings fell down. Guess which building it was?

East Tower, Caracas, Venezuela -- October 2004

The East Tower of Caracas' Parque Central building complex caught fire in the early morning of October 18th, 2004.

The crucial differences between this building and 7 World Trade:

• The East Tower was a reinforced concrete structure, not a simple steel-framed building at all.
• The East Tower suffered no crippling structural damage at the onset of the fire. It had the full benefit of its structural design working to redistribute shifting loads.
• The fire was always in "one place". It may have been on several floors, but the fire moved as a whole through the building. 7 World Trade had fires on many different floors.
• The lower floors of the East Tower were never on fire. The fire started on the 34th floor and went up to the 44th. This means that the weight of the building above the fire's lowest point was considerably less than that of 7 World Trade.
• The East Tower had a radically different design. While 7 World Trade had much of its gravity-bearing capacity in its core, the East Tower has no core at all. All of its support is in four separate units on each face of the building. The building is further reinforced by concrete "macroslabs" on the 14th, 26th, 38th, and 49th floors. "In effect, the concrete structure includes five stacked steel buildings, each supported by a (concrete) macroslab."
• The fires were fought all throughout the burning of the East Tower. The first call about the fire was at 12:05 am. By 1:15 am, firefighters were able to slow the fire considerably with one 2-inch line and two 1-inch lines. By 3 am, a second 2-inch line was added, and the fire was contained to three or four floors. Only at 7 o'clock, when some booster pumps malfunctioned, did the fire "(regain) intensity, spreading vertically at a rate of about one floor per hour until approximately 10" am. At 11, the fire chief abandoned interior firefighting efforts due to safety concerns, and the fire spread at the rate of 2 1/2 floors per hour during the afternoon.

First Interstate Bank, Los Angeles, USA -- May 1988

The First Interstate Bank Building in Los Angeles burned for 3 1/2 hours during the late evening and early morning of May 4th and 5th, 1988. Of all the buildings, this one is the closest in design to the towers and to 7 World Trade. It is a steel-framed tube-in-tube design.

The crucial differences between this building and 7 World Trade:

• The fire was quickly extinguished by Los Angeles first responders. The catalog of the team available in LA is remarkable. The Venezuelan authorities didn't have a third of the people available in Los Angeles.
• In Los Angeles, the First Interstate was their only priority. The immense scale of tasks for 9/11 first responders was part of the reason the fire was never fought.
• There were no water equipment and pressure problems in Los Angeles. The inability to get water to WTC 7 was another factor in its abandonment.
• The First Interstate Bank suffered no crippling structural damage at the onset of the fire. It had the full benefit of its structural design working to redistribute shifting loads.
• The fire was always in "one place". It may have been on several floors, but the fire moved as a whole through the building. 7 World Trade had fires on many different floors.
• No more than two floors were ever on fire at the same time. Fires were reported throughout the structure of 7 World Trade.

One Meridian Plaza, Philadelphia, USA -- February 1991

One Meridian Plaza burned in Philadelphia on February 23-24, 1991. Eight floors of this 38-floor structure were consumed in the 19+ hour burn.

The crucial differences between this building and 7 World Trade:

• The building had a significant structural difference from the WTC buildings. Although it was steel-framed and a tube-in-tube structure, one side of the internal "tube" was adjacent to the exterior wall.
• One Meridian Plaza suffered no crippling structural damage at the onset of the fire. It had the full benefit of its structural design working to redistribute shifting loads.
• The fire was always in "one place". It may have been on several floors, but the fire moved as a whole through the building. 7 World Trade had fires on many different floors.
• The fire was only in the upper floors of the building. It started on floor 22 and worked its way to the 30th. The full weight of the building was never concentrated on the fire zones, as in WTC 7.
• The fire was fought throughout its burn by a dedicated team. This building was the only priority of the team, but a power failure forced internal fire supression to be conducted by handlight alone.
• Operational sprinklers finally stopped this fire. Inoperable sprinklers let this fire burn so long, but a separate system on the 30th floor was the final trump card.

One New York Plaza, New York City, USA -- August 1970

One New York Plaza caught fire on August 5, 1970, Four of its 50 stories were burned out in the six hour fire, and the building suffered minor structural damage.

The crucial differences between this building and 7 World Trade:

• The building had a concrete-reinforced core, making it significantly different in fire response than 7 World Trade.
• One New York Plaza suffered no crippling structural damage at the onset of the fire. It had the full benefit of its structural design working to redistribute shifting loads.
• The fire was always in "one place". It may have been on several floors, but the fire moved as a whole through the building. 7 World Trade had fires on many different floors.
• The fire was only in the upper floors of the building. It started on floor 33 and worked its way through floors 32-36. The full weight of the building was never concentrated on the fire zones, as in WTC 7.
• The fire was fought through its burn by dedicated first responders..

Think Of This Human Effort

What does all of this say about the level of competence in people throughout the architectural, engineering, civic, and emergency response communities that so many skyscrapers have never had severe fire problems? Sound building design, skilled construction, watchful building codes, and alert, dedicated first responders have combined forces across this globe to ensure that these buildings have not wreaked utter havoc in our cities.

There are exceptions, of course, but this is true for the most part. We as a species have been incredibly thoughtful and lucky to have had such success in modern building design.

Yet on 9/11, three buildings slipped through this elaborate safety net. Their designs and construction were kneecapped by severe, even catastrophic damage. Their fire protection systems were overwhelmed by unimaginable fires. Their protectors were unable to reach them either because of distance or priority.

And so they fell. The fact that never before or since in human history have buildings like these fallen is not a weapon to accuse anybody of foul play other than the zealots who crashed two planes into the Twin Towers.

It is a testament to our ingenuity, our dedication, and our mortality.

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