Paris | Friday
RAGING fires with the energy of a nuclear plant brought down the World Trade Center’s twin towers on September 11, not the impact of the two airliners, according to a study cited on Friday by the New York Times.
The impact, however, dislodged fireproofing around the towers’ girders and severed the water pipes of the sprinkler systems, contributing to the 1 093 degree Celsius heat that eventually led to the collapse, said a draft copy of a federal report obtained by the daily.
The report said the towers had shown surprising resilience to massive structural damage caused by the impact of the two airliners.
”The ability of the two towers to withstand aircraft impact without immediate collapse was a direct function of their design and construction characteristics, as was the vulnerability of the two towers to collapse as a result of the combined effects of the impacts and ensuing fires,” the report concluded.
Commissioned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the full report is due to be released officially in late April or early May, said the daily.
ASCE representative Norida Torriente said the report had not been finalised and ”it would not be appropriate for us to comment” on the results of the study.
The most recent death toll from the towers was 2 838, including 147 on the two hijacked planes. The September 11 toll is more than 3 000 people including the attack on the Pentagon and the hijacked plane that crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside.- Sapa-AFP