Originally posted by dubiousone
reply to post by bluewaterservant

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The pics of the angle cut beams have always troubled me. Has there been any attempt by "officialdom" to explain how those angle cuts on these main structural supporting beams came into existence? If so, is it a credible explanation?

I vaguely recall an ATS post in which someone opined that the angle cust were made as part of the after-the-collapse cleanup effort. But I believe that comment was made by a would-be debunker rather than an official source.

And the people taking payment from the government to intentionally achieve damage control through more lies and denials ought to be skinned alive right along with the rest of them. They have no shame, and no doubt a lot of sleepless nights.

Carol Ciemiengo

Carol is a Level III Infraspection Institute Certified Infrared Thermographer®. Receiving her initial certification in 1999, Carol has extensive field experience in a wide variety of thermographic applications. She fills a key role at Infraspection Institute as a technical writer, database manager, and part-time magician making impossible tasks look easy.

September 11, 2001:
A Thermographer's Experience at Ground Zero

Carol Ciemiengo
Jersey Infrared Consultants
PO Box 39
Burlington, NJ 08016
609-386-1281

Normal Becomes Surreal

I was on site and ready to begin the day at 7:35 a.m. As normal, I took my equipment from the truck, grabbed my lunch bag and walked in the side entrance of the building. I signed in with security and took the elevator to the 2nd basement to get set up. We got started around 8:40, going to the lobby level where we had left off the day before. The elevator doors opened and someone said, "Hey Bob, did you hear that?" Neither of us had heard anything, so we just chalked it up to a big truck going a little too fast. A common happening in New York - most people who spend any time there don't even hear it. I distinctly remember looking at the clock in the lobby - it was 8:44 a.m. We went into an electrical closet and I scanned the open panels. Bob told me he was going to go check out the noise. I told him I was done scanning and was curious too, so I'd go with him.

We walked through the lobby and outside onto Church Street. For anyone who has never been there, the streets in lower Manhattan are not very wide and it really is like a concrete canyon. Everyone on the sidewalk was looking up at the north tower of the World Trade Center. As I looked up, I saw fire and smoke coming from a gash in the side of the north tower as well as a lot of paper floating down to Church Street.
Thermograph
Thermal image of North Tower shows fire location in white.

Because the Trade Center Towers were just over 1/4 mile high, looking up from the ground made what you were looking at appear small. No one in my surrounding area knew for sure what had just happened. There was talk that a small plane had grazed the building or there had been some sort of explosion. None of us felt particularly unsafe. After all, this is America and nothing resembling what happens in war-torn countries ever happens here.

It finally occurred to me that I was still wearing both an infrared imager and a camcorder and should tape what was going on. I recorded for awhile, then decided to see if I could take a thermal image. Due to the heat I was not able to get a temperature or even a good image, but I snapped two thermograms from ground level anyway.

At about 8:59, I decided it was time for me to stop wasting time and get back to work. I knew it would be a long day for the firefighters, but I had a job to finish. I worked my way through the crowd and back inside the building and was told to meet Bob in the 2nd basement.

It was at that moment - no more than a minute from the time I walked back into the building - that suddenly people were stampeding up the streets. I saw this through all three sets of lobby doors and wondered why people were all of a sudden running. Still not comprehending what was going on, I got on the elevator and went downstairs. When I got there, everyone was gathered around the TV. They said the report was there had been an explosion in the south tower. We watched, but from the vantage point of the newscast, we could not see it was a plane that had been flown into the tower. I didn't find out for sure what had happened until much later.

I said I'd like to get a better look - but not from the ground. Everyone else in the room agreed, so we took the elevator to the 11th floor and went onto the roof. There were about five of us there - just watching. We were all trying to use our cell phones, but the circuits were jammed, so no one was really sure exactly what had happened. As we watched, people were jumping or falling out of the north tower. None of us could understand why. We saw a few people at about the 105th floor waving a white cloth out of the window. They seemed so far away, but when you realize that although it's only a block away on ground level, the towers were just over 1/4 of a mile high. I began taping again but didn't fully understand the horror that was going on right in front of me. Everyone on that roof felt as if they were watching a movie. We still didn't feel we were in imminent danger.

As a thermographer, I felt compelled to add some thermographic images to my tape. In addition to the running tape, I snapped two more images: one of the north tower and one of the south. It did not occur to me, until someone said it later that day, these might be the only thermograms in the world of this event. The world had taken a turn for the surreal - it now seemed as if we were in the movie - not just watching.

The real world broke in and my pager went off. Someone from my office was trying to reach me, but I just wanted to watch what was happening and knew I would have to go down to the basement to get a land line. Five minutes later, my pager went off again - this time 911. It finally occurred to me that I should let my office know I was safe. I went back down to the basement and was able to get a land line to call the office. It was decided to call it a day and arrange to return next week to finish the job. It was decided I should take the equipment with me, make arrangements to leave the truck overnight and walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, where I'd be picked up. The intention was to go back up the next day and retrieve my truck. A co-worker of mine was in the Bronx that day, so the plan was for him to drive into Brooklyn and pick me up or, as an alternate, I would take a taxi and meet him in the Bronx. I was asked to notify the office when I was on my way. Knowing cell service was hard to get - if not completely down, I told the office I'd call when I could get a line.

Originally posted by alienj
reply to post by TrueAmerican

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How crooked can this guy get, first of all , if anyone knows about high rise construction, the most vulnerable part of the building is the pan decking. Its a metal pan laid btw girders filled with concrete, in fact if you need to cut thru it for any reason you have to have a arch check it out because if you cut thru in the wrong place you can cause one whole floor to drop. This aircraft took out several floors of pandecking not to mention it also too out several main supports. Who cares how hot the fire got. The main structure of the building was compromised. Its time to take off the blinders and see the whole picture.

Originally posted by dubiousone
reply to post by bluewaterservant

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The pics of the angle cut beams have always troubled me. Has there been any attempt by "officialdom" to explain how those angle cuts on these main structural supporting beams came into existence? If so, is it a credible explanation?

I vaguely recall an ATS post in which someone opined that the angle cust were made as part of the after-the-collapse cleanup effort. But I believe that comment was made by a would-be debunker rather than an official source.