Witnesses of molten steel at Ground Zero on 9/11

Witnesses of Molten Steel at Ground Zero on 9/11

Leslie Robertson, structural engineer for the design of the World Trade Center: "[T]hey pulled out the big block of concrete and there was like a little river of steel flowing." @ 0:49 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjmHqES_lto

Peter Tully, president of Tully Construction of Flushing, N.Y., told AFP that he saw pools of "literally molten steel" at the World Trade Center. http://web.archive.org/web/20020905195530/http:/www.americanfreepress.net/09_03_02/NEW_SEISMIC_/new_seismic_.html

Richard Riggs, debris removal specialist, quoted in The History Channel's "World Trade Center: Rise and Fall of an American Icon": "The fires got very intense down there and actually melted beams where it was molten steel that was being dug up." @ 0:36 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ogrupgt4mI&feature=related

Abolhassan Astaneh, professor of civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, was one of the leading structural engineers who studied the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11: "I saw melting of girders in World Trade Center." http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science-jan-june07-overpass_05-10

Mark Loizeaux, founder of Controlled Demolition, Inc.: "There are both video tape and still photos of the molten steel being 'dipped' out by the buckets of excavators." http://libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=30926&Disp=4#C4 Link to page: http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=30926

Capt. Philip Ruvolo, FDNY: "You get down below and you'd see molten steel—molten steel running down the channel rail, like you're in a foundry, like lava." @ 0:11 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afZaK8zVbUw&feature=related

Joe O'Toole, firefighter: "Underground fires raged for months. O'Toole remembers in February seeing a crane lift a steel beam vertically from deep within the catacombs of Ground Zero. 'It was dripping from the molten steel,' he said." http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/wtc/evidence/messengerinquirer_recoveryworker.html

Greg Fuchek, vice president of sales for LinksPoint, Inc.: "In the first few weeks, sometimes when a worker would pull a steel beam from the wreckage, the end of the beam would be dripping molten steel." http://gcn.com/articles/2002/09/09/handheld-app-eased-recovery-tasks.aspx

Richard Garlock, a structural engineer for LERA: "Going below, it was smoky and really hot. . . . The debris past the columns was red-hot, molten, running." http://www.pbs.org/americarebuilds/engineering/engineering_debris_06.html

James Glanz, writer for The New York Times: "A three-foot stalagmite of steel, which looks for all the world like a drip candle, sits next to one of the immense steel columns that held up the north face of the tower." http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/15/nyregion/a-nation-challenged-the-site-below-rubble-a-tour-of-astill-burning-hell.html

Lee Turner, paramedic: Turner himself crawled through an opening and down crumpled stairwells to the subway, five levels below ground. He remembers seeing in the darkness a distant, pinkish glow — molten metal dripping from a beam. http://web.archive.org/web/20140106090807/http://www.usnews.com/usnews/9_11/articles/911memories.htm

William Langewiesche, journalist: "In the early days, the streams of molten metal that leaked from the hot cores and flowed down broken walls inside the foundation hole.” http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0865476756/centerforcoop-20 (pp. 31-32)

Ron Burger, public health advisor at the CDC: "Feeling the heat, seeing the molten steel, the layers upon layers of ash, like lava, it reminded me of Mt. St. Helen's and the thousands who fled that disaster.” http://www.brazoshealth.org/sites/all/themes/health/images/pdfs/messages_in_the_dust.pdf

Mike Donoho, interim Bryan Fire Department chief: "What you had were large columns of steel that were just stuck into massive amounts of molten steel and other metals." http://web.archive.org/web/20021104073017/http://www.theeagle.com/septanniv/091102firefighter.htm

Tom Hickey, union ironworker: With no special protective gear, he worked within a few feet of still burning fires, [which were] "like a volcano," hot enough that molten steel could be seen dripping down. "My boots melted every night," he recalled. "You just didn't stand in one place too long." http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/02-09-05/wtc.htm

David Long, of Ottawa, was in New York on 9/11, working at Merrill Lynch: "I went outside and saw a large hole in the left-hand tower, approximately 80 stories up. There was smoke coming out, but not a lot of fire. I could also see streams of molten metal coming from undamaged areas of the building, in three different places." http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-09/eyewitness-accounts-of-september-11/2866958

Lee Turner, Boone County Firefighters: "He remembers seeing in the darkness a distant, pinkish glow— molten metal dripping from a beam—but found no signs of life." https://web.archive.org/web/20020913065755/http://www.usnews.com/usnews/9_11/articles/911memor ies.htm

Reports from Hearsay Witnesses

Ken Holden, who was involved with the organizing of demolition, excavation, and debris removal operations at Ground Zero, later told the 9/11 Commission: "Underground, it was still so hot that molten metal dripped down the sides of the wall from [WTC] Building 6.” http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=ken_holden

Alison Geyh, Ph.D., John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: "Fires are still actively burning and the smoke is very intense," reports Alison Geyh, Ph.D. "In some pockets now being uncovered, they are finding molten steel." http://www.jhsph.edu/Publications/Special/Welch.htm

Herb Trimpe, chaplain: "I talked to many contractors and they said they actually saw molten metal trapped, beams had just totally had been melted because of the heat." http://web.archive.org/web/20021006003613/http:/www.recordonline.com/adayinseptember/trimpe.htm

Kathy Dawkins, New York Department of Sanitation (DSNY) spokeswoman: "For about two and a half months after the attacks, in addition to its regular duties, DSNY played a major role in debris removal — everything from molten steel beams to human remains." http://waste360.com/mag/waste_dday_ny_sanitation

Sarah Atlas, New Jersey Task Force One Urban Search and Rescue: "Fires burned and molten steel flowed in the pile of ruins still settling beneath her feet." http://www.sas.upenn.edu/sasalum/newsltr/summer2002/k911.html

Ben Johnson, first responder: "The workers go through three pairs of rubber boots a day because they melt in the three-week-old fire of molten metal and jet fuel." https://web.archive.org/web/20100225015212/http://www.illusiongenius.com/articles/11-01.html