Recently, Rosie O'Donnell has made some
statements on The View which have created a bit of
controversy.
"No, but I do believe it's the first
time in history that fire has melted steel - I do
believe that it defies physics for the World Trade
Center Building 7, which collapsed in on itself, it is
impossible for a building to fall the way it fell
without explosives being involved - World Trade Center
7."
"One and two got hit by planes, 7 miraculously, the
first time in history, steel was melted by fire - it is
physically impossible,"
"I don't know but to say we don't know and it was
imploded in a demolition is beyond ignorant, look at the
films get a physics expert here from Yale, from Harvard,
pick the school, it defies reason."
I write this, not to pile on and call for
her firing, but to do the opposite. I also write this to the
people who have concluded that the buildings collapsed by
fire but think Rosie must go.
There is a distinct difference between
Rosie and Steven Jones. Rosie is not a professor teaching
children science. She is a comedian on a talk show. It is
reasonable to suggest she doesn't have the time, or even
know how to research this on the internet. (I'm sure she
believes she has but the evidence shows she hasn't) I find it hard to
believe she is one of the "Eyes open" conspiracy theorists.
I suspect she saw some internet videos and read some
conspiracy sites without seriously having the time to
research this on her own. While I feel it would have been
better to call Yale or Harvard before making those claims, I
find the idea of censoring her even more disturbing. Even if
that censorship is only in the corporate media.
I ask, is this what America has devolved
to? Can anyone speak their mind anymore? Are we so fearful a
culture that we have become little McCarthys - looking to
take away anyone's job who says anything misinformed?
I hope not; I don't
want to live in that kind of America. The America I grew up
in was an example of freedom to the world. As long as it
doesn't affect one's job, we should be able to say anything
we want about a major event, (As long as it respects the
memories of the people who died on 9/11) without repercussions.
We also pledge allegiance to the flag, not to
politicians. Our founding fathers expected us to question
our leaders as they questioned theirs. Not to question our
leaders may be the most unpatriotic thing we can do. Rosie
hasn't said the government did it but I suspect much of the
push to get her fired is because of her contempt for the
present administration.
With that said, let me address Rosie's
statement directly.
"I do believe it's the first time in
history that fire has melted steel"
This was an obvious error in
communicating. I'm sure she realizes that fires DO melt
steel. That's how it is manufactured. So the question
becomes, "what did she mean?
Rosie writes back to a reader on her blog...
judy writes:
Rosie, did you know steel is made
with fire i know this because my hubby works in a
steel mill.
please answer you never answer my questions
Rosie writes:
yes
did u know water freezes at 32degrees
no at 34 or 67 but 32
steel melts at 2700 degrees
no steel building in history
has even been pulverized into dust
like wtc7
by a fire
I suspect that what Rosie doesn't know is that the fires didn't need to melt the
steel to collapse the building as the conspiracy sites she
links to suggest. They only had to weaken the
steel. Even at 300C, steel loses 20% of its strength.
Scientific studies, even from other countries, say that a normal
office fire can reach over 1,100C.
She also may not know that steel oxidizes when exposed to low
levels of heat for an extended time, as would be the
case in the debris pile. Anyone expecting Rosie to know this
is just character assassinating.
There were
thousands of gallons of fuel oil missing from the WTC Con Ed sub
station. It wasn't found by the workers cleaning up the
site. Where did it go? It's not unreasonable to conclude
that it
burned. Especially given the fires which burned so long. What she also fails to ask herself is how
explosives would have caused the effect.
If she thinks it's thermite, the tons
needed and the horizontal cut would make it near impossible,
even for the government, to do covertly. Canisters
– for which there is no evidence of existence
other than a patent, and for which there is no evidence
whatsoever that they would work on vertical columns –
would have to be wrapped around each column, using conspiracy
theorist logic. Remember, they say all the connections were
cut, which is (according to them) the only way the building
could have fallen as fast as they did. No resistance, remember? All
of the
office workers came in and never questioned the drywall
around the columns, which would have been widened to
accommodate the canisters? Or is the suggestion they were
all murderous NEO-CONS working in the building, who saw the
covert work done as part of the master plan? How huge is
this conspiracy? It seems to grow by the thousands per
month. All of the news reporters and now all of the workers in the
WTC7? With all due respect Rosie, how much can you swallow?
The idea that no buildings have ever
collapsed due to fires is also misinformation fed to her by
the "eyes open" conspiracy theorists. Let's see the
examples...
The McCormick Center in Chicago and
the Sight and Sound Theater in Pennsylvania are
examples of steel structures collapsing. The theater
was fire protected using drywall and spray on
material. A high rise in Philly didn't collapse
after a long fire but firefighters evacuated the
building when a pancake structural collapse was
considered likely. Other steel-framed buildings
partially collapsed due fires one after only 20
minutes.
The steel framed McCormick Center was at the time
the World's largest exhibition center. It like the
WTC used long steel trusses to create a large open
space without columns. Those trusses were
unprotected but of course much of the WTC lost it's
fire protection due to the impacts.
"As an example of the damaging effect of fire on
steel, in 1967, the original heavy steel-constructed
McCormick Place exhibition hall in Chicago collapsed
only 30 minutes after the start of a small
electrical fire."
The McCormick Place fire "is significant because it
illustrates the fact that steel-frame buildings can
collapse as a result of exposure to fire. This is
true for all types of construction materials, not
only steel." wrote Robert Berhinig, associate
manager of UL's Fire Protection Division and a
registered professional engineer. He also discusses
UL's steel fire certification much more knowledgably
than Kevin Ryan. He is an example of one more highly
qualified engineer who supports the collapse theory.
On the morning of January 28, 1997, in the Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania township of Strasburg, a fire
caused the collapse of the state-of-the-art, seven
year old Sight and Sound Theater and resulted in
structural damage to most of the connecting
buildings. The theater was a total loss, valued at over $15
million.
pg 6/74
The theater was built of steel rigid frame
construction to allow for the large open space of
the auditorium, unobstructed by columns... The
interior finish in the auditorium was drywall.
The stage storage area, prop assembly building, and
prop maintenance building were protected with a
sprayed-on fire resistant coating on all structural
steel. The plans called for the coating to meet a
two-hour fire resistance assembly rating. The
sprayed-on coating, which was susceptible to damage
from the movement of theater equipment, was
protected by attaching plywood coverings on the
columns to a height of eight feet.
The walls of the storage area beneath the stage were
layered drywall to provide a two-hour fire
protection rating for the mezzanine offices [the WTC
used drywall as fire protection in the central core]
, and sprayed-on fire-resistant coatings on the
structural steel columns and ceiling bar joists supporting the
stage floor. pg 15/74
The two theater employees told the State Police Fire
Investigator that when they first discovered the
fire they noticed that the sprayed-on fire proofing
had been knocked off the underside of the stage
floor bar joists and support steel. The fire
proofing was hanging on the wire mesh used to hold
the coating to the overhead. The investigation
revealed that the construction company's removal of
the stage floor covering down to the corrugated
decking involved striking the floor hard enough to
knock off the sprayed-on protection, exposing the
structural steel and bar-joists in the storage area.
[The theater's spray-on fireproofing was newer and
more modern than at the WTC, The theater was only
seven years old. If striking the floor during
renovations was enough to dislodge it imagine the
impact of a 767]
pg 16/74
Temperatures of 1000° F can cause buckling and
temperatures of 1500° F can cause steel to lose
strength and collapse. When the heat and hot gases
reached the stage ceiling they extended horizontally
into the auditorium, causing the roof to fail all
the way to the lobby fire wall. The fire also
extended horizontally from the stage to the elevated
hallway, causing the structural steel to fail and
buckle in the prop assembly and prop maintenance
buildings
pg 17/74
Once the heat of the fire caused the structural
steel to fail in the storage area (aided by the
damage to the sprayed-on fire protection during
renovation), interior firefighting became too
hazardous to continue. The truck crews ventilating
the roof noted metal discoloration and buckling steel.
pg. 21/74
The two hour fire resistance-rated assembly in the
storage area beneath the stage was damaged during
the stage floor renovation, leaving the structural
members unprotected from the ensuing fire.
pg. 26/74
Buildings constructed of steel should, in effect, be
considered unprotected and capable of collapse from
fire in as few as ten minutes. Fire resistant
coatings sprayed onto structural steel are
susceptible to damage from construction work.
The impact of fire and heat on structural steel
members warrant extreme caution by firefighters.
pg. 36/74 Unless the steel members are cooled with high-volume
hose streams, the fire's heat can rapidly cause
steel to lose its strength and contribute to
building collapse. pg. 37/74
Other Fires
In February 1991, a fire broke out in One Meridian
Plaza - a 38 story office building in Philadelphia.
The building was built during the same period as the
WTC and had spray-on fire protection on its steel
frame. Despite not suffering impact damage,
authorities were worried it might collapse.
"All interior firefighting efforts were halted after
almost 11 hours of uninterrupted fire in the
building. Consultation with a structural engineer
and structural damage observed by units operating in
the building led to the belief that there was a possibility of a pancake structural collapse of the
fire damaged floors."
About 2 years later, the NYFD was concerned that a
steel framed building that partially collapsed
during after a gas explosion might collapse entirely
due to the resulting fire.
"Bright orange
flames shot out the sides of the Windsor Building, which
is near one of Madrid's main boulevards.
The fire started around 11:30 p.m. Saturday and was
still burning out of control several hours later. At
least nine upper stories were on fire and muffled
explosions could be heard in the building."
Steel columns snapping
under tremendous tension will make an explosive sound. Be it
in Madrid or the World Trade Center.
The statement " I do believe that it
defies physics for the World Trade Center Building 7, which
collapsed in on itself, it is impossible for a building to
fall the way it fell without explosives being involved" is
also not based in fact. She can believe anything she wants but it's
quite another thing to prove it. One misinformation she's
been fed is the speed of it's collapse. It did NOT fall in
less than 7 seconds. Here's the evidence...
Seismic readings say the collapse took at
least 18 seconds. It's not impossible for the collapse to
have started on the south side away from cameras well before
the less than 7 seconds of north face collapse. In fact the
evidence supports it.
Rosie said:
"no steel building in history has even been pulverized into dust like wtc7 by a fire"
Rosie, no steel building has ever been
"pulverized into dust", even to this day. Career conspiracy
theorists point to a photo taken from well above the debris
pile as supposed evidence that WTC7 was pulverized into a small
pile.
But camera angles can be deceptive, as career
conspiracy theorists know. Below is evidence that the pile was
much taller than conspiracy theorists say.
It looks to me like the firemen atop the
aerial ladder are about
four
stories high. That means the pile is more than eight stories
high, taking the camera angle into account. That doesn't
include what fell into the rather large basement.
"I don't know but to say we don't know and it was
imploded in a demolition is beyond ignorant, look at the
films get a physics expert here from Yale, from Harvard,
pick the school, it defies reason."
I challenge Rosie. I challenge her to keep
her word and talk to a civil or structural engineer from
Harvard or Yale. I suspect that's what she meant by "physics
experts" since physics experts have little to do with
building construction and design. It is civil and structural
engineers who will know what the buildings can and can not
do. ANY structural or civil engineering
professor from a RESPECTED university will do.
Not ONE civil or structural engineer has
passed a peer reviewed paper by a respected scientific
journal suggesting what Rosie is saying. ( The Journal Of
911 studies is NOT a respected scientific journal. The
journal was invented for the same reason creationist
journals were. Because their notions can not stand up to
REAL scientific scrutiny. Nor do the other places where Jones' 911
paper is published have any impact to the scientific
community.) So where does she
get this idea from? The only places she's looked: from
conspiracy theorists. Where else would she get this from?
She isn't a civil or structural engineer.
Then, if she concludes that WTC 7 could fall
the way it did, I beg her to tell her fans. At least link to
this site and let people make up their own mind.
