Molten Steel & Extreme Temperatures at WTC

Ground Zero, Manhattan – New York after 9/11

Introduction

See the following video I made. Please watch in 480p, full screen. (Press play, then adjust resolution. Full screen icon is at right.)

To comment, rate, or to find part two, visit YouTube.com. The video serves as an introduction to the idea of extreme ruin in general, not so much the astronomical temperatures that were a result of the destructive force. A popular descriptive word for Ground Zero, you’ll notice, was:

“Unbelievable.”

Let’s hear experienced ironworkers, architects, engineers, firefighters, and professionals who saw the destruction firsthand, as they talk about the mangled steel, extreme temperatures, and unbelievable pulverization of the debris.

Many of the beams were twisted and distorted as though made of rubber or wax. Some beams were over 6 [inches] thick and bent like pretzels. Structural engineers, who are experts in steel structures that have suffered earthquakes and explosions claimed to have seen nothing like this before and could not imagine the kind of pressure and heat required to do this kind of damage.

– Wendy Neu of Hugo Neu Schnitzer East (Hugo Neu Corporation) to the Empire State Chapter of ISRI (Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries) on November 28, 2001, at http://www.hugoneu.com/includes/pdfs/Speech-11-28-2001.pdf

I found it hard to believe that it bent because the size of it and how there’s no cracks in the iron. It’s bent without almost a single crack in it. It takes thousands [?] degrees to bend steel like this.

– Ironworker talking about the “horseshoe” piece saved for possible memorial use, in “Relics from the Rubble,” A&E TV, 2002. Watch clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SLIzSCt_cg#t=1m48s — Commenting on the piece of steel, Mark Wagner of Voorsanger Architects and Associates said, “Typically you’d have buckling and tearing on the tension side, but there’s no buckling at all.” (Update: In a recent interview with the 9/11 Memorial Museum, Wagner changed his story – or lied – saying heat was not a contributing factor! Touchy subject, I guess.)

Architects and engineers — people who work with steel — welders have just never seen the level of destruction and the level of deformation of this material in our lives.

Bart Voorsanger, architect and part of the committee to designate objects to be salvaged) in “Relics from the Rubble,” A&E TV, 2002. — watch at http://www.911conspiracy.tv/mainstream_documentaries.html

This documentary in particular draws attention to the incredible state into which building materials were contorted. The film features a unique look at one of the “meteorites” — a “fused element of steel, molten steel and concrete and all these things fused by the heat into one single element.” (Voorsanger, Ibid. Watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SLIzSCt_cg#t=1m20s — or download the clip (mpeg2): here) — update: see a NIST photo from Hangar 17, titled “Fused steel and concrete.” Note that “the melting point of concrete varies between 1800-2500°C” (See http://www.weldcare.co.uk/app10.htm ).

WTC “meteorites” — molten steel and concrete, etc.

It was like the surface of another planet. All there was, was powdered debris and metal. It was a – a very strange scene.

– Chief Daniel Nigro (FDNY Chief of Department 2001-2) in “Conspiracy Files – 9/11: The Third Tower,” BBC TV 2008 — http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9072062020229593250 at vrt 22:21.

NYPD Deputy Inspector and lead investigator on-site at Fresh Kills Landfill (working with FBI), James Luongo, when asked if there were one particular artifact of interest, replied:

I think the lack of artifacts stands out to me quite a bit. I think the fact that I haven’t seen a door, I haven’t seen a phone, I haven’t seen a computer. I haven’t seen a doorknob. I think that stands out.

– “Relics from the Rubble” — See clip at YouTube

by metamars on Thu Jan 08, 2009 5:21 pm
I went to the NYC Police Museum today to verify that the article and accompanying text were genuine. They are, indeed. Furthermore, there were a few shards of glass, with the following text, which I copied down:
‘Glass was a rare find at Ground Zero, where these shards were recovered. The collapse and fires pulverized and melted most of the glass from the Twin Towers 43,600 windows.’

– http://the911forum.freeforums.org/wtc-6-molten-concrete-anomaly-t113.html

For investigation into the glass – and to see the photo of the NYC Police Museum display – see “Glass A Rare Find at Ground Zero.”

You have two 110-story office buildings. You don’t find a desk. You don’t find a chair. You don’t find a telephone, a computer. The biggest piece of a telephone I found was half of the keypad, and it was about this big. The building collapsed to dust. How are we supposed to find anybody in this that there’s nothing left of the building?”

– FDNY Engine 7’s Joe Casaliggi in the Naudet documentary “9/11” at vrt 1:25:20 in TV version at http://www.911conspiracy.tv/mainstream_documentaries.html

Next a quote from “World Trade Center: Rise and Fall of an American Icon,” THC, 2002 — Col. John O’Dowd of the US Army Corps of Engineers. See vrt 1:06:30 at http://www.911conspiracy.tv/mainstream_documentaries.html

[Narrator] Aside from huge pieces of twisted steel from the towers, there was little that was recognizable in the debris. Shrapnel-like fragments. Gray dust. No one had ever seen anything like it, even at the site of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, also destroyed by an act of terrorism.

[O’Dowd] I said, you know, in Oklahoma City, you could see pieces of desks and chairs. There was something that told you that this was an office building. At the World Trade Center site it seems like everything was pulverized.

Here’s another quote from somebody who worked on the pile:

I’ve seen collapses, and [did?] demolition buildings but nothing like– this was unbelievab– like I said there wasn’t a door, there wasn’t anything to be found. It was all disintegrated, all rubble. Concrete was small little pieces, not even slabs. No desks, no furniture, no computers, no phones, no anything. And so I imagine the people were the same as the building– nothing left.

– Tom Spinard, FDNY Engine 7 in “9/11: The Filmmakers’ Commemorative Edition” (see clip)

Engineer Sees Evidence of Extreme Temperatures in WTC Steel

Dr. Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, who specializes in studying structural damage done by earthquakes and terrorist bombings. He flew to New York on September 19, 2001 to conduct a two-week reconnaissance of the collapsed towers, hoping to gain an understanding of how they’d come down. He was able to examine numerous pieces of steel taken from Ground Zero. [Kenneth Chang, “Scarred Steel Holds Clues, and Remedies.” New York Times, October 2, 2001; Robert Sanders, “Report from Ground Zero.” Berkeleyan, October 3, 2001; Jeffrey R. Young, “Scholars Work to Rebuild the World Trade Center Virtually.” Chronicle of Higher Education, December 7, 2001.]

He said the towers were exceptionally well designed and built, describing the WTC as “the best-designed building I have ever seen.” [Keay Davidson, “Berkeley Professor Seeks the Safer Skyscraper.” San Francisco Chronicle, October 22, 2001.] Yet the structural steel had suffered unusual warping and other major damage:

• Astaneh-Asl said that steel flanges “had been reduced from an inch thick to paper thin.” [Robert Sanders, “Report from Ground Zero.”]

• At a recycling center in New Jersey, he saw 10-ton steel beams from the towers that “looked like giant sticks of twisted licorice.” [Jeffrey R. Young, “Scholars Work to Rebuild the World Trade Center Virtually.”] He showed the San Francisco Chronicle a “banana-shaped, rust-colored piece of steel” that had somehow “twisted like toffee during the terrorist attack.” [Keay Davidson, “Berkeley Professor Seeks the Safer Skyscraper.”]

• He noted the way steel from the WTC had bent at several connection points that had joined the floors to the vertical columns. He described the connections as being smoothly warped, saying, “If you remember the Salvador Dali paintings with the clocks that are kind of melted–it’s kind of like that.” He added, “That could only happen if you get steel yellow hot or white hot–perhaps around 2,000 degrees.” [Jeffrey R. Young, “Scholars Work to Rebuild the World Trade Center Virtually.”]

• In an interview in 2007, Astaneh-Asl recalled, “I saw melting of girders in [the] World Trade Center.” [“Collapse of Overpass in California Becomes Lesson in Construction.” NewsHour, PBS, May 10, 2007.]

• He found a foot-long twisted shard of steel that was “like a piece of bread, but it was high-strength steel.” He commented, “I haven’t seen anything like this [before].” [Pamitha Reynolds, “Berkeley Prof Analyzes Structural Damage of the WTC.” Berkeley Daily Planet, October 20, 2001.]

• He came across “severely scorched [steel] members from 40 or so floors below the points of impact [by the planes].” [David Kohn, “Culling Through Mangled Steel.” CBS News, March 12, 2002.]

• The fireproofing that had been used to protect the WTC steel also showed evidence of extreme conditions. In some places it had “melted into a glassy residue.” [Kenneth Chang, “Scarred Steel Holds Clues, and Remedies.”]

• Astaneh-Asl saw a charred I-beam from WTC Building 7–a 47-story skyscraper that collapsed late in the afternoon of 9/11, even though no plane hit it. “The beam, so named because its cross-section looks like a capital I, had clearly endured searing temperatures. Parts of the flat top of the I, once five-eighths of an inch thick, had vaporized.” [Ibid.]

– Thanks to Shoestring911 for his blog article, largely quoted above (with numbered endnotes in brackets changed into immediate notes). See http://shoestring911.blogspot.com/2008/02/engineer-sees-evidence-of-extreme.html

– FEMA News Photo, source: http://www.photolibrary.fema.gov/photolibrary/photo_details.do?id=4104

“Metal of Honor: The Ironworkers of 9/11” was a 2006 Spike TV program (by Rachel Maguire, aired Sept. 5) that featured numerous fascinating comments on the extreme heat of underground fires, which were finally extinguished mid-December, according to Spike. One comment from ironworker Larry Keating is repeated in a review by Linda Stasi: “The film shows how they crawled down through and up 100 feet of hot steel, even though sometimes it could explode when the buried ends were exposed to the air.” (See http://www.najaproductions.com/images/pdf/NYP.pdf ) Specifically, Keating says: “The grapplers were pulling stuff out, big sections of iron that were literally on fire on the other end. They would hit the air and burst into flames– which was pretty spooky to see.” (Watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SLIzSCt_cg#t=2m20s ) Other clips are found here: http://www.total411.info/2006/10/video-metal-of-honor-ironworkers-on.html

“America Rebuilds” comments on the fires here at 3:25. One of the workers says the fires were at one point “2,800 degrees.” While this could be an overstatement, it is important information that shouldn’t be discounted. Because “iron, out of the ground, melts at around 1510 degrees C (2750°F). Steel often melts at around 1370 degrees C (2500°F).” (source) However,

In no instance did NIST report that steel in the WTC towers melted due to the fires. The melting point of steel is about 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,800 degrees Fahrenheit). Normal building fires and hydrocarbon (e.g., jet fuel) fires generate temperatures up to about 1,100 degrees Celsius (2,000 degrees Fahrenheit). NIST reported maximum upper layer air temperatures of about 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) in the WTC towers (for example, see NCSTAR 1, Figure 6-36).

– http://wtc.nist.gov/pubs/factsheets/faqs_8_2006.htm

While these fires were technically not “in the WTC towers,” but instead in the rubble pile, these extreme temperatures have not been explained. One second hand source confirms, “Thermal measurements taken by helicopter each day showed underground temperatures ranging from 400ºF to more than 2,800ºF.” (Jeffrey W. Vincoli, Norman H. Black and Stewart C. Burkhammer, “SH&E at Ground Zero“) This “small group of SH&E professionals from Bechtel Group Inc.” had no reason to exaggerate… although available data doesn’t confirm 2,800ºF.

Images and data from the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) recorded Sept. 16 and later can be found at the USGS website and in the PDF document “USGS Environmental Studies of the World Trade Center Area, New York City, after September 11, 2001.” AVIRIS provided the most detailed thermal data (including temperature), but other instruments were also used. Sadly, “[a]lthough AVIRIS temperature readings were released to the FDNY, this key information was not received by any of the mapping centers.” (“Engineering and Organizational Issues Related to The World Trade Center Terrorist Attack Volume 3, Emergency Response in the Wake of the World Trade Center Attack: The Remote Sensing Perspective,” by Charles K. Huyck and Beverley J. Adams, ImageCat, Inc., for The Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER), June, 2002, p. 39.)

Molten Metal

Molten metal – specifically steel – is a point of contention among researchers. NIST denies its presence, of course. Other researchers are also quick to point out that no good photographic evidence has been produced. However, there are many witnesses to this now almost mythical, molten steel.

No video exists of it, apparently, other than that which poured from the 80th floor of the South Tower prior to “collapse.” Watch many angles of this event in a compilation here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPu9IqBfMIw . The official theory states the dripping metal is aluminum from the plane and/or office material. Some think it may be lead from the UPS batteries on the 81st floor: http://11-settembre.blogspot.com/2007/02/ups-on-81st-floor-of-wtc2.html . Discussion on that theory is here: http://the911forum.freeforums.org/wtc2-molten-metal-drip-t188.html .

It is debated, naturally, that no photos exist of molten steel – especially not in pools or streams, resolidified or not. (The meteorites are not ideal.) While photos have been offered as proof – see sharpprintinginc.com/911/index.php… – evidence of tampering (photoshopping, faking, etc.) has also been proven, it seems: sharpprintinginc.com/911/index.php… . Here’s that apparently fake, infamous photo:

Fake?
Original reportedly (0x1a.com) by ironworker Frank Silecchia See additional photo

Is it possible that all truly damning video and photographic evidence of molten steel has been successfully censored by THEM? What follows is all the testimony that answers, “Yes.”

“Warning! NO cameras or video equipment permitted! VIOLATORS will be prosecuted and equipment seized!” FEMA News Photo (source: http://picasaweb.google.com/Paula.sonnenfeld/WorldTradeCenterTorresGemelas#5249062942128699810 )

Molten steel was encountered primarily during excavation of debris around the South Tower when large hydraulic excavators were digging trenches 2 to 4 meters deep into the compacted/burning debris pile. There are both video tape and still photos of the molten steel being “dipped” out by the buckets of excavators. I’m not sure where you can get a copy.

Sorry I cannot provide personal confirmation.

Regards,

Mark Loizeaux, President
CONTROLLED DEMOLITION, INC.
2737 Merryman’s Mill Road
Phoenix, Maryland USA 21131
Tel: 1-410-667-XXXX
Fax: 1-410-667-XXXX
http://www.controlled-demolition.com

honway posted on 2003-12-13

– personal communication to “honway” posted at http://web.archive.org/web/20040109183256/http://libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=30926

The fires got very intense down there and actually melted beams where it was molten steel that was being dug up.

– Richard Riggs, Debris Removal Specialist in “World Trade Center: Rise and Fall of an American Icon,” THC, 2002. (Watch at http://www.911conspiracy.tv/mainstream_documentaries.html — His name and title shows at video run time 51:26. The quote is from vrt 54:00.

Said Kathy Dawkins, NY Dept. of Sanitation spokeswoman: “…NYDS played a major role in debris removal — everything from molten steel beams to human remains….” (Tom R. Arterburn, “D-Day: NY Sanitation Workers’ Challenge of a Lifetime” Apr. 1, 2002 at http://wasteage.com/mag/waste_dday_ny_sanitation )

September 16–Thermal imagery measures the progression of underground heat on about a weekly basis. These images are produced in 8-bit grayscale, with brightness levels of 0-255, 0 being the hottest and expressed as pure white. This is known as emissive data, or heat being given off from the structure from underlying hot debris or molten steel. Smoldering is yet undetectable, because potential fires appear cold until they are exposed to air. The first thermal images produced began on September 16, and are repeated on two day intervals. I would like to thank Jeff Bliss for the wonderful information and imagery he provided for this story, and acknowledge the 16-20 hours days CARSI Lab director Dr. Sean Ahearn has been putting in at the OEM. I would also like to credit Jeff Bliss, Constandinos Theophilides, and Bob Sklar for their tireless analysis. For a more in-depth look on CARSI, see the upcoming January special issue.

– Maddalena Romano, “Mapping Ground Zero,” GeoNews, Hunter College Dept. of Geography, Vol. 15, no. 1, October 2001 – http://www.geo.hunter.cuny.edu/geonews/october2001.pdf

“Turner himself crawled through an opening and down crumpled stairwells to the subway, five levels below ground. He remembers seeing in the darkness a distant, pinkish glow–molten metal dripping from a beam–but found no signs of life.” – Marci McDonald, “They came to help at Ground Zero. What they experienced they can’t forget” http://www.usnews.com/usnews/9_11/articles/911memories.htm

Now let’s hear from the only real journalist given unrestricted access to Ground Zero for the duration of the “cleanup.” He was below the surface of “the pile,” exploring with engineers on more than one occasion. Here he mentions “…the rattle of cascading debris, the ominous groaning of weakened structures overhead, or, in the early days, the streams of molten metal that leaked from the hot cores and flowed down broken walls inside the foundation hole.”

– William Langewiesche, American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center, North Point Press, New York, 2002, p. 32.

“In his reporting for ‘American Ground,’ Langewiesche explored the shifting debris with construction workers and engineers, documenting the crises and questions as they arose. He crawled through ‘the pile’ with survey parties and descended deep below street level to areas where underground fires still burned and steel flowed in molten streams.”
– http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200207/77nwash (See quote from Langewiesche himself above.)

Peter Tully of Tully Construction was the contractor responsible for the eastern quadrant of the pile– the South Tower, WTC 4 and 5, and the 425,000 square foot underground mall. Tully granted an interview that proved most interesting:

‘Think of the thousands of file cabinets, computers, and telephones in those towers – I never saw one – everything was pulverized,’ he said. ‘Everything that was above grade – above the 6th and 7th floor – disintegrated…it was like an explosion.’ Tully Construction specializes in concrete. I asked Mr. Tully if he had ever seen concrete pulverized as it was at the WTC.

‘No – never,’ he said.

Tully said that there were hot spots where he observed ‘literally molten steel.’ Asked about what could have caused such intense heat, Tully said, ‘Think about the jet fuel.’

– Christopher Bollyn, “Foreign Firms Destroyed Crucial Evidence,” August 14, 2002, online at http://www.bollyn.com/bollyn-9-11-articles-2002

“I saw melting of girders in World Trade Center.” – Structural Engineer Abolhassan Astaneh at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june07/overpass_05-10.html

‘It’s still cooking,’ said Thomas O’Connor, who manages the construction and engineering work at the site for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owned the buildings and arranged for the tour through the basement.

In the days after the collapse of the towers two months ago, the tangled steel was still so hot that it glowed like charcoal briquets in the unlighted basement, Mr. O’Connor said, adding, ‘For seven weeks it was surreal down here.’

– James Glanz, “Below Rubble, a Tour of a Still-Burning Hell,” NY Times, Nov. 15, 2001, New York Edition p. B1. Online at http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/15/nyregion/a-nation-challenged-the-site-below-rubble-a-tour-of-a-still-burning-hell.html (See the same article to hear this: “A three-foot stalagmite of steel, which looks for all the world like a drip candle, sits next to one of the immense steel columns that held up the north face of the tower.”)

“In the first few weeks, sometimes when a worker would pull a steel beam from the wreckage, the end of the beam would be dripping molten steel,” said Greg Fuchek, vice president of sales for LinksPoint Inc., maker of the GlobalPoint Global Positioning System receiver used to track debris and/or human remains recovery locations in the pile. (Trudy Walsh, “Handheld App Eased Recovery Tasks,” Government Computer News, Vol. 21 No. 27 a, 9/11/2002. Archived at http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/wtc/evidence/gcn_handheldapp.html )

Bronx firefighter and recovery worker Joe “Toolie” O’Toole remembered “seeing a crane lift a steel beam vertically from deep within the catacombs of Ground Zero. ‘It was dripping from the molten steel,’ he said.” (Jennifer Lin, “Recovery Worker Reflects On Months Spent At Ground Zero,” Knight Ridder Newspapers, May 29, 2002. Archived at http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/wtc/evidence/messengerinquirer_recoveryworker.html )

It took me a long time to realize it and I found myself actually one day wanting to get back. Why? Because I felt more comfortable. I realized it was actually warmer on site. The fires burned, up to 2,000 degrees, underground for quite a while before they actually got down to those areas and they cooled off.

I talked to many contractors and they said they actually saw molten metal trapped, beams had just totally had been melted because of the heat. So this was the kind of heat that was going on when those airplanes hit the upper floors. It was just demolishing heat.

– Herb Trimpe, “The Chaplain’s Tale,” transcript of audio interview at RecordOnline.com, archived at http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/wtc/evidence/recordonline_chaplain.html

“‘Fires are still actively burning and the smoke is very intense,’ reports Alison Geyh, PhD. ‘In some pockets now being uncovered, they are finding molten steel.'” Rod Graham, “Mobilizing Public Health,” Johns Hopkins Public Health Magazine, Late Fall, 2001. Online at http://www.jhsph.edu/Publications/Special/Welch.htm

A veteran of disasters from the Mississippi floods [to] Mt. St. Helens, Burger said it reminded him most of the volcano, if he forgot he was in downtown Manhattan. ‘Feeling the heat, seeing the molten steel, the layers upon layers of ash, like lava, it reminded me of Mt. St. Helen’s [sic] and the thousands who fled that disaster,’ he said.

Francesca Lyman, “Messages In the Dust,” National Environmental Health Association, Sept. 2003. Online at http://www.neha.org/9-11%20report/index-The.html (Ron Burger was “a public health advisor at the National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who arrived in New York to help September 11.”)

Describing a speaking appearance by Leslie Robertson (structural engineer who worked on the World Trade Center), at the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations 9th Annual Conference, one source wrote, “As of 21 days after the attack, the fires were still burning and molten steel was still running.” (James Williams, “SEAUNEWS, The Newsletter of the Structural Engineers Association of Utah,” October 2001, p. 3. Source file expired: -http://www.seau.org/SEAUNews-2001-10.pdf. Articles quoting this source include: http://wtc.nist.gov/media/AE911Truth-NIST-Written-Submission12-18-07.pdf and http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evidence/moltensteel.html )

Firefighter Captain Philip Ruvolo testified to the presence of molten steel on camera. “You’d get down below and you’d see molten steel– molten steel running down the channelways, like you were in a foundry– like lava.” His FDNY brothers agreed with his observation. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SLIzSCt_cg#t=1m1s . Source is Etienne Sauret’s film “Collateral Damages” (2003).

A review of of Etienne Sauret’s documentary “Collateral Damage” describes firemen recalling “heat so intense they encountered rivers of molten steel.” (Lumenick, Lou, “Unflinching Look Among the Ruins,” New York Post, March 3, 2004.)

Thanks for much of this collection to http://0x1a.com/#[[World%20Trade%20Center%20Hot%20Spots]]

“They showed us many fascinating slides” he continued, “ranging from molten metal which was still red hot weeks after the event, to 4-inch thick steel plates sheared and bent in the disaster.”
– Dr. Keith Eaton at http://web.archive.org/web/20030422113455/http://www.istructe.org.uk/about/files/president/Tour-2002-NewYork.pdf

“Smoke constantly poured from the peaks. One fireman told us that there was still molten steel at the heart of the towers’ remains. Firemen sprayed water to cool the debris down but the heat remained intense enough at the surface to melt their boots.” – Guy Lounsbury of New York Air National Guard’s 109th Air Wing at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3731/is_200112/ai_n9015802#continue

“He remembers seeing in the darkness a distant, pinkish glow — molten metal dripping from a beam — but found no signs of life.” – Lee Turner of The Boone County Firefighters at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/9_11/articles/911memories.htm

“Richard Garlock, a structural engineer for LERA said ‘Going below, it was smoky and really hot… The debris past the columns was red-hot, molten, running.’
– http://www.pbs.org/americarebuilds/engineering/engineering_debris_06.html

The steel was so hot from the jet fuel that, uh, it was literally steaming. Your boots would melt in certain areas. That’s how hot it was. The steel was coming out red in certain areas for the first couple weeks, at least.

– Michael Casale, Project Supt., Mazzocchi Wrecking in Modern Marvels Demolition segment on WTC Ground Zero

“Vance Deisingnore, OSHA Officer at WTC, reported the following to Jim McKay, Post-Gazette Staff Writer, on September 11, 2002 ‘a fire truck 10 feet below the ground that was still burning two weeks after the Tower collapsed, its metal so hot that it looked like a vat of molten steel.'”
– http://web.archive.org/web/20030521104203/http://www.thenewliberator.com/wethepeople.htm

“‘The [NYFD] people who called us had been killed,’ Atlas considered as she surveyed the tons and acres of wreckage. ‘Nobody’s going to be alive.’ Fires burned and molten steel flowed in the pile of ruins still settling beneath her feet.” – “K-9/11: Tracking the Rescuers’ Trauma,” Summer 2002, on Sarah Atlas of New Jersey’s Task Force One Urban Search and Rescue – http://www.sas.upenn.edu/sasalum/newsltr/summer2002/k911.html

“Father Edward A. Malloy, on site 40 days after the disaster stated ‘Firefighters atop a number of ladder trucks were spraying in the areas of greatest smoke. The average temperature beneath the rubble is said to be 1500F so that when steel is brought up it is molten and takes two or three days to cool down.'”
– http://www.nd.edu/~ndmag/reflect/malloydiary.html

“Guy Lounsbury with the 109th Air Wing of the New York Air National Guard wrote ‘The men who work on this must constantly change their boots as the heat melts them. Two weeks after the attack, one fireman told us that there was still molten steel at the heart of the towers’ remains.'”
– http://home.nycap.rr.com/geljal/Documents/TWO%20WEEKS%20AT%20GROUND%20ZERO.htm

“A group of veteran ironworkers eating lunch while staring at the steel skeleton of a new building going up on West Third Street when one commented on ‘how much easier it was to eat a sandwich in front of steel that was strong and straight and new, not molten and mangled and laden with debris.'”
– Corey Kilgannon, “Ironworkers’ Job of Clearing Ground Zero Is Over, but the Trauma Lingers,” NY Times, Nov. 11, 2002 athttp://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/11/nyregion/ironworkers-job-of-clearing-ground-zero-is-over-but-the-trauma-lingers.html?sec=health

Fire Department Chief Mike Donoho of Texas Task Force 1 Urban Search and Rescue described the scope of the destruction, ‘Everything had its own look. In the area surrounding what was the two twin towers, there were several buildings still standing that were burned from top to bottom, and some of them were damaged by the collapse. But the two towers — they were 110-story buildings. And there was nothing that you could put your hands on that resembled anything that would tell you this once was two 110-story office buildings. What you had were large columns of steel that were just stuck into massive amounts of molten steel and other metals, that had just fused together from the heat and bonded together from the strength of the collapse. We dug and we dug and we dug, and we cut and we cut and we cut, and we did not see anything that resembled any type of furniture, any type of personal belongings. We found some pieces of things like a telephone, things like that. I think we found credit cards a few times, and we found a couple of stuffed animals. But you would expect to see, like, a bunch of desks, a bunch of chairs. The only way I can explain it is, if you take a car and put it in one of those machines where they crush it and make it look like a cube, and you can’t recognize what it is, that’s what the whole area looked like. It looked like a massive, molten mess that had been fused together, like a car that had been cubed and crushed. With all that heavy, heavy stuff, there were wires, rebar, concrete. Most of it was just steel. A lot of what we were walking on was just molten steel.’

– http://web.archive.org/web/20021104073017/http://www.theeagle.com/septanniv/091102firefighter.htm

“The workers go through three pairs of rubber boots a day because they melt in the three-week-old fire of molten metal and jet fuel. The health hazards are everywhere: the fire, molten metal, the lack of breathable air and 3000+ decomposing bodies.”
– http://www.illusiongenius.com/11-01.html

“Each story has its differences. Some told of 10-hour car drives and arriving in the black of night, the same calendar day as the towers were hit. Others remembered taking military transport – a C- 141 in Deeds’ case – a few days later. Others remember molten metal still dripping under the Pile more than a week after the attack.” – http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20061210/ai_n16903160

“Some beams pulled from the wreckage are still red hot more than 7 weeks after the attack, and it is suspected that temperatures beneath the debris pile are well in excess of 1,000°F.” – http://web.archive.org/web/20050520232345/http://www.liro.com/lironews.pdf

“Ferer was one of several people in a visiting United Services Organization (USO)-Tribeca group who had lost family members. As they visited troops, they carried Port Authority pins, baseball caps, and a piece of molten steel from the WTC.” – http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118717317/abstract

No matter when they went, the odor of molten steel, pulverized concrete and charred flesh burned their throats, lingering in their lungs. http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-3115751/Answering-the-call-from-ground.html

It was hot.

New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said “They were standing on top of a cauldron. They were standing on top of fires 2,000 degrees that raged for a hundred days.” – http://nymag.com/news/features/28517

Another danger involved the high temperature of twisted steel pulled from the rubble. Underground fires burned at temperatures up to 2,000 degrees. As the huge cranes pulled steel beams from the pile, safety experts worried about the effects of the extreme heat on the crane rigging and the hazards of contact with the hot steel. And they were concerned that applying water to cool the steel could cause a steam explosion that would propel nearby objects with deadly force. Special expertise was needed. OSHA called in structural engineers from its national office to assess the situation. They recommended a special handling procedure, including the use of specialized rigging and instruments to reduce the hazards.

– http://www.osha.gov/Publications/WTC/dangerous_worksite.html

The ‘hot spots,’ where intensely burning debris generated temperatures in excess of 1300 degrees Fahrenheit, posed a significant danger to relief workers. NASA had an instrument that could provide information that would be useful to emergency responders. NASA’s Airborne Visible infrared Imaging Spectrometer (http://0x1a.com/#AVIRIS]AVIRIS) science instrument was capable of providing data that could be used to filter smoke and locate extreme hot spots.

– http://amelia.db.erau.edu/nasacds/200406Disc2/research/20040071086_2004065539.pdf

“The temperature at the core of ‘the pile,’ is near 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, according to fire officials.” http://web.archive.org/web/20010918182531/http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/WTC_recovery010918.html

“Firefighters and other responders contended with intense heat associated with the super-heated steel for weeks; some were coming back from shifts with the bottoms of their boots melted.”
– http://www.gwu.edu/~icdrm/publications/usace911/generalfindings.html

“Two weeks after the attack, the rubble, the Pile, is still 7 stories tall. Below, in the Pit it burns like the gates of hell. It is 1200 degrees, so hot that the steel work lifted by the grapplers comes out soft. I’ve never seen anything like this.” – http://www.ukfssart.org.uk/wtc%20ground%20zero.htm

The dogs were trained to sniff out bodies. They weren’t trained to recognize heat. So when they hopped on a smoldering I-beam [some of which were hot enough to melt the firefighters’ rubber-soled boots] they’d get hurt. Some of them even ignited,” said Bellone, who added that the firefighters were often slowed down because they stopped to care for their four-footed comrades, many of which could not be saved. “We retired a lot of them because of burns or just stress,” he said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency team assembled at the site included scores of veterinarians.

– http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2002/911-sunday-0911.html

“Firemen and hazardous materials experts stated that, six weeks after 9/11, ‘There are pieces of steel being pulled out [from as far as six stories underground] that are still cherry red’ and ‘the blaze is so ‘far beyond a normal fire’ that it is nearly impossible to draw conclusions about it based on other fires.”
– http://www.nydailynews.com/2001-11-01/News_and_Views/City_Beat/a-130539.asp – also http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=30926

“Ground Zero at the World Trade Center was a search site like few others after a major disaster event. Multiple sources of hazards were everywhere. There were shards of steel piled on steel, a two-million-ton pile of debris, red hot steel beams still being pulled from the earth, crevasses, holes, unstable ground, still burning fires, possible asbestos exposure, and caustic fumes that may have contained mixtures of benzene, methane gas and other chemicals.” http://michigan.gov/documents/CIS_WSH_minwsw02_28059_7.pdf (maloney.house.gov)

“The first indication of ‘Ground Zero’ is the smoke. It’s still smoking. Many of the beams are still red hot as they are uncovered, and start new fires as the oxygen reaches them.” – Congressman Pete Hoekstra hoekstra.house.gov

The pile of debris after 30 days of removal operations was still gigantic, over three stories high, with structural steel projecting 7-10 stories into the air. The steam, dust, noise, steel and myriad activities were larger than anything I have ever seen. Temperatures in the pile were over 1,200 °F. Every time an area was opened, fire started in any buried combustible debris. Water trucks and fire engines were used continually. The high temperature debris and water created steam.

– http://www.spk.usace.army.mil/cespk-pao/jan-02/jan02-01.html (cached copy)

“It was determined that 3 million gallons of water were hosed on site in the fire-fighting efforts between 9/11 and 9/21″… “In addition, there were 2 episodes of rain during the same 10 day period after the attack: on 9/14 and 9/20, totaling 0.9 million gallons of water per Bathtub area. Considering the neighboring area, one can take 1 million gallons from the rain. Therefore, a total of 4 million gallons of water percolated through the debris in the first 10 days and collected at the bottom of the Bathtub.”
– http://www.llnl.gov/tid/lof/documents/pdf/240430.pdf http://www.marinefirefighting.com/Pages/Newsletters/Newsletter9.htm

“2000 gallons of Pyrocool FEF foaming agent were sprayed on the ‘pile’ starting September 28th.” – http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn1634]newscientist.com

As in a stubborn coal mine fire, the combustion taking place deep below the surface is in many places not a fire at all. Instead, oxygen is charring the surfaces of buried fuels in a slow burn more akin to what is seen in the glowing coals of a raked-over campfire. But the scale of the trade center burning is vast, with thousands of plastic computers, acres of flammable carpet, tons of office furniture and steel and reservoirs of hydraulic oil and other fuels piled upon one another. Steel beams pulled from the debris at times are so hot they are cherry red. Benzene, propylene, styrene and other chemicals generated by the combustion of computers, office products and fuels drift through the air.

– Eric Lipton and Andrew C. Revkin, “A NATION CHALLENGED: THE FIREFIGHTERS; With Water and Sweat, Fighting the Most Stubborn Fire,” NY Times, Nov. 19, 2001, p. B1 at http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/19/nyregion/nation-challenged-firefighters-with-water-sweat-fighting-most-stubborn-fire.html

Other Buildings

“The crater” of WTC 6 was also suspect, although debris from WTC 1 no doubt contributed to the cave-in. Keep in mind the FEMA investigators were not allowed access. See their “Building Performance Study,” chapter 4, at http://www.fema.gov/pdf/library/fema403_ch4.pdf — titled “WTC 4, 5, and 6” despite the total concentration on Building 5. Kenneth Holden, Director of the entity managing the recovery operation at Ground Zero, the NY Department of Design and Construction (DDC), testified to the 9/11 Commission (See http://www.9-11commission.gov/archive/hearing1/9-11Commission_Hearing_2003-04-01.htm ) on C-SPAN2 TV (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SLIzSCt_cg#t=3m51s ). He said “Underground it was still so hot that molten metal dripped down the sides of the wall from Building 6.” Molten concrete, which helped form the “meteorites” mentioned above, also flowed like lava at the US Customs House (WTC 6), according to the New York Police Museum display seen in photographs here: http://0x1a.com/#[[World%20Trade%20Center%20%22Meteorites%22]] Guns were embedded in concrete. Building 6 was also the location of the fused steel cross seen in photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/F.Archiver/D2p1_GodsHouseWTC6?authkey=r_ZzJMbgTrY# . Hear more about the amazing cross here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SLIzSCt_cg#t=4m0s .

Don’t forget about WTC 7:

A combination of an uncontrolled fire and the structural damage might have been able to bring the building down, some engineers said. But that would not explain steel members in the debris pile that appear to have been partly evaporated in extraordinarily high temperatures, Dr. Barnett said.

– James Glanz, “Engineers Suspect Diesel Fuel in Collapse of 7 World Trade Center,” NY Times, Nov. 29, 2001, at http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/29/nyregion/29TOWE.html

This and one other sample of steel are featured in the “Limited Metallurgical Examination” done in Appendix C of the FEMA Building Performance Study found here: http://wtc.nist.gov/media/AppendixC-fema403_apc.pdf — authored in part by Dr. Jonathan Barnett. The 2008 BBC documentary “Conspiracy Files – 9/11: The Third Tower” discounts/dismisses this evidence here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9072062020229593250 — at vrt 48:40. However, that documentary doesn’t mention the final paragraph of the Appendix C document, headed “Suggestions for Future Research.” (Emphasis added.)

The severe corrosion and subsequent erosion of Samples 1 and 2 are a very unusual event. No clear explanation for the source of the sulfur has been identified. The rate of corrosion is also unknown. It is possible that this is the result of long-term heating in the ground following the collapse of the buildings. It is also possible that the phenomenon started prior to collapse and accelerated the weakening of the steel structure. A detailed study into the mechanisms of this phenomenon is needed to determine what risk, if any, is presented to existing steel structures exposed to severe and long-burning fires.

Uncertain mainstream info on this issue is found here: http://www.wpi.edu/News/Transformations/2002Spring/steel.html and justified suspicion is found here: http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evidence/metallurgy/index.html — considering no other steel from Building 7 was saved for study.

Barnett was professor of fire protection engineering at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and, according to the NY Times, “part of an assessment team organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to examine the performance of several buildings during the attacks.” (Glanz, Nov. 29, 2001) That article continues: “If further studies of the debris confirm the findings of extremely high temperature, Dr. Barnett said, ‘the smoking gun would be the fuel.'”

This “smoking gun” has apparently been found among the pervasive dust from the events. It is remaining active thermitic (explosive) material, or aluminothermics. Please read the paper, “Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe” here: http://www.bentham.org/open/tocpj/articles/V002/7TOCPJ.pdf — http://www.bentham-open.org/pages/content.php?TOCPJ/2009/00000002/00000001/7TOCPJ.SGM — download here: http://femr2.ucoz.com/load/1-1-0-3 — and learn more here: http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/thermite/explosive_residues.html . Danish television (TV2News) featured the story April 6, 2009, by hosting one of the authors, Niels Harrit, in a program available to watch with English subtitles here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_tf25lx_3o — and for download here: http://agenda911.dk/harrit/tv2gomorgen/

Dust

A main ingredient in the WTC debris was, of course, the dust. It was concrete and sheet rock, most people figured. It was everywhere in Manhattan for weeks – months – after 9/11. Before the rain Friday the 14th, the dust was inches thick in places. Therefore, doubting the chain of evidence for the dust used in the above study is not a valid argument against that evidence. The nanocomposite thermitic “chips” were not the only apparent proof of a conspiracy found in the dust. We have copious evidence in the form of spherical iron particles – steel that was boiled, vaporized in temperatures far exceeding that of jet fuel or office fires. Not only steel, but also glass.

Please scan through the published work of Steven E. Jones, Jeffrey Farrer, Gregory S. Jenkins, Frank Legge, James Gourley, Kevin Ryan, Daniel Farnsworth, and Crockett Grabbe, “Extremely high temperatures during the World Trade Center destruction.” In addition to elemental composition analysis using a scanning electron microscope, you will find this micrograph, or optical microscope image of WTC dust plainly showing dried molten material:

Discussion and debate can be found here: “The Problem with Microspheres” — http://www.sharpprintinginc.com/911/index… . Amazingly, a 9/13 ABC News investigation into the dust confirmed the steel particles, even with some amount of suspicion, it seemed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LW6b8JF5ls#t=1m39s — “But most interesting in the mix they are looking, they think, at specks of steel that used to be beams and elevators….”

There is yet another apparent proof of orchestrated demolition relating to the dust: the dense, almost pyroclastic flow. The argument shows that the energy required to generate the volume of dust (specifically after the North Tower “collapse”) was decidedly too high to be explained by a gravity-driven collapse. Please see http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/analysis/proofs/volume.html — by Jim Hoffman.

Quickly, here is a list of links to the major studies of WTC dust, in no particular order:

1. http://www.ehponline.org/members/2002/110p703-714lioy/lioy-full.html
Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 110, Number 7, July 2002
“Characterization of the Dust/Smoke Aerosol that Settled East of the World Trade Center (WTC) in Lower Manhattan after the Collapse of the WTC 11 September 2001”

2. http://www.nyenvirolaw.org/WTC/130%20Liberty%20Street/Mike%20Davis%20LMDC%20130%20Liberty%20Documents/Signature%20of%20WTC%20dust/WTC%20Dust%20Signature.Composition%20and%20Morphology.Final.pdf
“Signature Assessment 130 Liberty Street Property,” RJ LeeGroup, Inc., 12/2003 (see image above, spherical-iron-particle-magnified_w.jpg )

3. http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2001/ofr-01-0429/
US Geological Survey. Huge data collection. (See the USGS pic “iron rich sphere” at Jim Hoffman’s site: …which quotes Steven Jones’s earlier paper (“Revisiting 9/11/2001 — Applying The Scientific Method,” Journal of 9/11 Studies, 5/27/07 at http://www.journalof911studies.com/volume/200704/JonesWTC911SciMethod.pdf — “Iron melts at 1538ºC, so the presence of these numerous iron-rich spheres implies a very high temperature.”

4. http://delta.ucdavis.edu/WTC.htm
“Analysis of Aerosols from the World Trade Center Collapse Site, New York, October 2 to October 30, 2001” and “Trade Center Debris Pile Was a Chemical Factory, Says New Study” September 10, 2003

Conclusion

The overwhelming evidence for impossibly high temperatures during and/or after the “collapses” has been hidden from the public. Where it has seeped through into the major media, the evidence has faced a psychological blockade, borne of patriotism and faith in the acceptably inept powers that be.

Please decide for yourself after reading an article from the opposing point of view, that there was no molten steel, courtesy of 911myths.com.

UPDATE: See a NEW video release from the International Center for 9/11 Studies NIST FOIA, 911datasets release 29, folder 42A0346 – G29D32 —

Les Robertson Confirms Molten Metal in WTC Basement

Les Robertson [of LERA, the primary structural engineering firm involved in building the Trade Center], in presentation at Stanford University, confirms that he saw a “river of molten steel” at the B1 level of the WTC debris pile. This video also has a clip of Robertson confirming that the WTC Towers were designed to absorb the impact of a Boeing 707, the largest airplane of its time.