Check Everything

An admonition that apparently Mark Roberts lives by. I noticed a point Mark raised during his debate with the Loosers that I thought should be covered here as well. Loose Change mentions (about 32:10 into the 2nd Edition Recut) that "On February 23, 1991, a 38-story skyscraper in Philadelphia, built in 1973, burned for more than 19 hours and spread over eight floors. It did not collapse."

True enough, but misleading. The building was One Meridian Plaza. Here's the FEMA report on the fire. On page 17 of the report (page 22 of the PDF file), we find out why it burned for 19 hours:



What a shame Dylan Avery and David Ray Griffin (who also cites the One Meridian Plaza fire) were not there to tell the firefighters to continue battling the blaze, that no steel-framed high rise had ever collapsed due to fire.

Kudos to Mark for catching this!

Update: 9-11 Truthiness points out this in the comments:

Structural Conditions Observed
"Prior to deciding to evacuate the building, firefighters noticed significant structural displacement occurring in the stair enclosures. A command officer indicated that cracks large enough to place a man’s fist through developed at one point. One of the granite exterior wall panels on the east stair enclosure was dislodged by the thermal expansion of the steel framing behind it. After the fire, there was evident significant structural damage to horizontal steel members and floor sections on most of the fire damaged floors. Beams and girders sagged and twisted -- some as much as three feet --under severe fire exposures, and fissures developed in the reinforced concrete floor assemblies in many places. Despite this extraordinary exposure, the columns continued to support their loads without obvious damage"

He adds:

And remember this building had not been first hit by an aircraft going 480mph. It had fire fighting efforts in play to help cool the fires buning. The fire stopped when it reached floors where sprinklers were installed.

Excellent comment!