fireproofing

New Reports on the Twin Towers Released

On January 8, 2008, I submitted a FOIA Request to NIST asking for all records that relate to the fireproofing upgrades made to the Twin Towers prior to 9/11. I was recently successful in getting three new reports about the condition of the Twin Towers just prior to 9/11 released.

One report is a fire engineering assessment completed by Burro Happold in February of 2000. The other two reports were property condition assessments done by Merritt & Harris, Inc. a year or so prior to 9/11. These reports together total hundreds of pages, and I want them widely released so they can be analyzed in light of the NIST reports on the collapses of the Twin Towers. Note that the Merritt & Harris reports are very large files.

Merritt & Harris Report #1: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NRZG0EYP

Merritt & Harris Report #2: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SXPY2FU6

Burro Happold Report: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=42IO10P8

Please report any interesting findings here.

My comments on NIST's WTC 7 report

I emailed the following comments to NIST today, well before the deadline for submitting comments. I utilized Kevin Ryan's recent critique of NIST's draft report. Gregg Roberts gave useful feedback on the text and "Americanized" the language.

* * * * *

Dear Sirs,

Here are my comments on the long-awaited draft for public comment of NIST's report on WTC 7, issued by NIST on August 21st, 2008.

1. Collapse Models

RSS