I've been reading "102 Minutes" .. [View All]

[hack89]

by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn - great read on what happened inside the WTCs before they collapsed. The courage and grace under pressure of some of the survivors is amazing.

One thing caught my eye - on page 66 it talks about the fireproofing for the steel structure. Despite a never used before fireproofing material (a spray on mixture of mineral fibers and adhesive) it appears that NO TEST were ever done to see if the stuff as applied in the WTC actually worked! In 1999 the NY Port Authority ordered that the fireproofing be tripled in thickness from one half inch to one and a half inch but work proceeded slowly because it could only be done as clients moved out of their spaces as the ceiling and floors needed to be ripped up.

Also interesting is that the fire code that the WTC was built to only required that the steel columns resist fire for 3 hours while the floors had to resist fire for two hours!