Very interesting indeed.
I must admit that fire must have been big, and very "explosive", and very strategically placed.
Crazy how those fires are eh?

Sunder agrees that the wreckage was tidy and explained why. "If you look at columns 79, 80 and 81 [three of the building's central columns], the floor area that they're carrying is very large—particularly column 79, which was carrying about 2000 sq. ft. of floor area." Column 79 was the first column to fail. "It was an interior column that failed, followed by two more interior columns [80 and 81], then east to west. So what you're seeing is an interior collapse, then to the outside. What you're getting is an impression of a controlled demolition, but it's not."
Sunder said that his team investigated these hypothetical causes and ruled them out. "We asked ourselves what is the minimum amount of charge we could use to bring the building down," he said. "And we found that even the smallest charge would release an extremely loud sound heard half a mile away." There were no reports of such a sound; numerous observers and video recordings found the collapse to be relatively quiet.




Originally posted by Pilgrum
reply to post by Asktheanimals
I could be wrong but as far as I've been able to confirm the only reason that thermite was put forward as a possible explanation is to satisfy the distinct lack of destructive explosions (IE it's quiet enough). The main problem is that thermite is used primarily for constructive purposes (welding) because it produces molten iron and it's very unpredictable in terms of speed so co-ordinating thermite induced failures on a large scale just isn't feasible as the first induced failures would re-weld themselves before the last ones completed. Also thermite does not act sideways so cutting vertical columns with it is going to be a challenge.
Do you have any example of large buildings being demolished with thermite to supply some sort of precedent?
Originally posted by Sean48
reply to post by Pilgrum
What could make molten metal flow, months after?