Steel-frame building fires

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Revision as of 20:03, 30 September 2007 by Woozle (talk | contribs) (→‎Incidents: some dates, and WTC incidents prior to 9/11)
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Overview

This page is for information about fires in steel-frame high-rise buildings.

No such building has ever been known to collapse due solely to fire.

Notes

According to architect Richard Gage, fireproofing is only intended to withstand fire for 2 hours, so any fire lasting longer than that has probably burned through to the structural steel and begun heating it.

Related Pages

Incidents

need more specifics

  • mid-1990s, bomb goes off leaving huge hole inside one of the towers (I seem to recall there was fire as well, so this can stay here)
  • 1991-02-23 Philadelphia, 91 Meridian Plaza, 38 floors: 8 floors burned for 18 hours
  • 1988-05-04 Los Angeles, First Interstate Bank 62 floors: 5 stories burned for 3.5 hours
  • 1975-02-14 WTC1: fire breaks out between 9th and 14th floors; sprinklers are installed afterward
  • Caracas, Venezuela, 56 floors: 26 floors burned for 17 hours
  • New York Plaza, 50 stories: burned for 6 hours

All of these buildings, except for WTC1, are still in use.