I originally published the following article to the blog section of a MySpace profile I created, entitled, “World Trade Center“…
On 9/11/01, at 5:20pm, World Trade Center 7, a 570 ft. tall, 47-story building, suffering from scattered, uneven diffuse-flame fires and a gash to it’s lower south-western corner, drops from it’s 81-vertical-steel-column-reinforced position in the sky at near free-fall speed and symmetry with virtually no resistance from the still-intact, structurally-bound-to-column floors below the scattered diffuse-flame fires within, with no evidence that ANY portion of ANY of the 81 vertical steel columns remained standing, all while falling neatly into its own footprint.
Here are three photos of WTC before September 11, 2001:
Front Entrance of WTC7, as seen from Vesey Street.
World Trade Center 7, as seen from the top of World Trade Center 2.
World Trade Center 7 was never hit by a plane. Its fall garnered little attention from the media, or even the very officials charged with job of discovering what happened. According to the officially-endorsed Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) report, entitled “World Trade Center Building Performance Study: Data Collection, Preliminary Observations, and Recommendations,” and published in May of 2002, flaming debris from the Twin Towers caused fires on multiple floors of the building – possibly igniting fuel-tanks in the basement and ultimately leading to its collapse. However, FEMA made no attempt to illustrate that their hypothesis had any real data to support it, whatsoever. They reached no final conclusions – choosing, rather, to call for a more extensive and thorough examination in order to discover why Building 7 had apparently “imploded.” “The specifics of the fires in WTC 7 and how they caused the building to collapse remain unknown at this time. Although the total diesel fuel on the premises contained massive potential energy, the best hypothesis has only a LOW PROBABILITY of occurrence. Further research, investigation, and analyses are needed to resolve this issue” (FEMA, World Trade Center Building Performance Study, 5/2002, Chapter 5.7). The Department of Commerce’s (DOC) National Institute of Standards in Technology (NIST) has published NCSTAR 1: Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster – Final Report on the Collapse of the World Trade Center Towers, but have yet to put out a conclusive report on WTC7. In a New York magazine interview in March 2006, Dr. S. Shyam Sunder, NIST’s lead WTC disaster investigator, said, of World Trade Center 7, “We are studying the horizontal movement east to west, internal to the structure, on the fifth to seventh floors…But truthfully, I don’t really know. We’ve had trouble getting a handle on Building No. 7.”
*Sigh* While the lack of a solid conclusion on what caused WTC7 to “collapse” is maintained by both the FEMA report and the lack of a NIST report, this fact is actively being ignored by those who would say that these reports are complete and that the investigation into 9/11 is therefore closed. Good individuals are being attacked by proponents of the official stories for simply taking the advice within the FEMA report, and attempting to further research, investigate and analyze the events surrounding the fall of WTC 7.
Here is a picture from the FEMA report (figure 1-4) illustrating the layout of the World Trade Center Complex before 9/11/01:
Take note of the location of World Trade Center Building 7 in relation to the Twin Towers, World Trade Centers 4, 5 and 6, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, the Verizon Building, the direction of the impacts of Flight 11 and 175 and the locations of subsequently scattered plane debris. Given all of these factors, WORLD TRADE CENTER 7 DOES NOT STAND OUT AS BEING IN ANY MORE DANGER OF FULL DESTRUCTION THAN ANY OF THE OTHER BUILDINGS that are actually directly bordering the Twin Towers, let alone that it alone should nearly symmetrically “collapse” into its own footprint at at near free-fall speed.
Here is another picture from the FEMA report (figure 1-7):
Note that the radius of the debris impact zones for the falling Twin Towers indicate that WTC 3, 4, 5, 6, WFC 2, the Bankers Trust Building and 90 West St. are in the most danger of receiving damage.
Taken from the FEMA report (figure 5-14), this picture illustrates the location of WTC7 relative to the high-energy dust cloud that emerged following the fall of WTC 1:
FEMA’s caption next to the picture reads: “Note the two mechanical penthouses of WTC7 are intact.” Also note that there is an altogether lack of debris on the roof of WTC7. Finally, note that WTC 5 and 6 are not visible. They have been completely engulfed in dust and debris.
Here are some photos displaying the east face of a still-standing WTC 7 after
the fall of the Twin Towers:
The lower portion of eastern face of WTC 7, as seen from the corner of Barclay Street & West Broadway. There is a fire on the 12th floor that spans across seven to eight windows.
A close-up of the lower portion of the eastern face of WTC 7 with a fire on the 12th floor.
Another wide-angle view of the eastern face of WTC 7 on fire.
The area of focus in the above pictures is the eastern face of WTC 7. There is an isolated fire on the 12th floor. Notice that there is dark-colored smoke emanating from the burning row of windows. This indicates that we are viewing diffuse flame fires. Diffuse-flame fires burn the coolest of all fires and pose little threat to the structure of a steel-framed, steel-cored building.
Here is a photo displaying most of the north face of WTC7 after the fall of the Twin Towers:
Note that while there are small, isolated fires on the 7th and 12th floors, the rest of the building’s northern face is completely intact, including almost every window.
Here is an aerial photo displaying the west face of WTC 7 after the fall of the Twin Towers:
This photo, showing the western face of WTC 7, is featured in the April 5, 2005 “NIST Response to the World Trade Center Disaster: Part IIC – WTC7 Collapse” (pg. 16). Note the damage to the south-west corner of the building, as well as the amount of broken windows on the western wall.
Here are some photos displaying the south face of WTC 7:
In this FEMA report photo (figure 5-17), notice that dark smoke is emanating from a number of windows on the south face of WTC7, obscuring the extent of fire and/or debris damage it has sustained. Curiously, while smoke appears to be emanating from the south face of just about every south-west corner office in view, only a few windows on the western face of the same corner offices are emitting any smoke at all.
Here is a photo displaying World Trade Centers 5, 6 and 7:
Notice that dark smoke is emanating from a number of windows on the south face of WTC7. Also note that while smoke is emanating from the south face of most of the SW corner offices, only a few windows of the western face of the same corner offices are emitting smoke. Finally, note that there is dark smoke billowing from WTC5 and WTC6, which are in the foreground of the photo, at the foot of WTC7. WTC6 (on the left) is being sprayed with water by firefighters on the scene.
Another photo displaying World Trade Center Buildings 5, 6 and 7:
Take note of the fact that there are at least three sources contributing to the large smoke cloud that is lingering between the buildings in this photo: Smoke emanating from the south face of WTC7, as well as fires in WTC5 & WTC6. Also take note of the fact that smoke is billowing from the roof of WTC6 and that it is being sprayed with water by firefighters on the scene.
A third photo displaying World Trade Centers 5, 6 and 7:
The lower portion of the eastern wall of WTC 7, as seen from the corner of Barclay Street & West Broadway. In the background, WTC5 (left) and WTC6 (right) are on fire and smoking.
This FEMA report photo (figure 4-13) displays WTC5 on fire:
Note that WTC5 appears to be fully-involved in fire. Also note that smoke billows out of a number of windows, as well as the entire roof. This observed damage DOES NOT result in a complete structural collapse of the entire building.
Here is a photo displaying World Trade Center 6 (with WTC7 in the background, left):
Note that WTC6 is on fire and is being sprayed with water by the FDNY, while a large cloud of emanates from its roof.
Here is a aerial photo from the FEMA report (figure 5-26) illustrating Ground Zero after the falls of WTC 1, 2 and 7:
Note that WTC7 appears to have been SINGLED OUT for complete destruction. WTC5 and WTC6 are both directly bordering the Twin Towers, and are both under 10 stories high. These factors make them much more susceptible to damage from falling debris than World Trade Center 7.
The company that the government hired to clean up Ground Zero, Controlled Demolitions, Inc., determined that World Trade Centers 5 and 6 were damaged beyond repair. In the months following 9/11/2001, both buildings were “pulled” down with cables.
Here is a overhead photo of World Trade Center 7 taken a few days after 9/11/01:
Notice how the four outer walls of WTC7 have neatly fallen/folded into and on top of the rest of the pile of ruins without significantly damaging any of the adjacent building.
Here are some photos of World Trade Center 7 taken a few days after 9/11/01:
The only known way to achieve these physical results in a steel-framed building is by way of controlled demolition. This highly complicated, intricately-timed, computer-driven procedure involves quickly, simultaneously severing all of the vertical steel columns that hold a building upright with strategically placed cutter charges, in floor by floor sections, sequentially from bottom to top, then immediately voiding out the foundation of the building with explosive charges. As the building begins to immediately fall into the newly-created void, strategically placed explosives are detonated, floor by floor, again starting from the bottom, and matching the speed of gravity, in order to displace the already-severed steel vertical columns, which keeps the structure constantly heading towards the void, while simultaneously pulverizing the floors and concrete reinforcements as it does so. The end result of this method is clear: a tidy pile of building.
Here is a photo of the Key Bank Building in Salt Lake City, Utah:
The Key Bank Building, a 20-story steel-cored structure, was demolished with explosives on August 18, 2007.
Here is a photo of the just-demolished Key Bank Building:
Note the presence of a high-energy dust cloud as the building is imploded.
Here is a picture showing the remains of the Key Bank Building:
Notice that the right outer wall remains in large, intact pieces, and has fallen into and towards the overall pile.
With the above photos in mind, here is real example of a building in India that has undergone a “pancake collapse”:
Notice how the collapse and destruction of each floor, one by one, from top to bottom, has extended all the way to the outer-walls of the structure, leaving them crushed, while the portions directly affixed to the floor partitions are still somewhat intact, being very clearly distinguishable from each other. Also note that this building was NOT erected using structural-steel, but rather, rebarbs and concrete, which is much, much weaker by comparison, and would leave no steel skeleton behind.
Here is a picture of the Windsor Building in Madrid, Spain:
The Windsor Building was a 29-story steel-reinforced concrete structure that caught fire on the night of February 12, 2005. It burned for over 24 hours before finally going out.
Here are two photos of the fire-engulfed Windsor Building:
The fire started on the 21st floor, and quickly spread throughout the whole building, reaching down to the 4th floor, and all the way to the roof.
Note that this structure was NOT erected using structural-steel, but rather, steel-reinforced concrete, making this building significantly structurally weaker, when compared to World Trade Center 7.
Here are a series of pictures showing the aftermath of the Windsor Building
fire, and the extent of damage to the structure:
(All original portions of this work, by Rayn Kleipe, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, while all redistributed links, images, sounds, videos, and writings are protected under 17 U.S.C. § 107: Fair Use, or under Public Domain)
