Abel Ashes Hull Simmons

THE CONTROLLED PROGRESSIVE COLLAPSES OF THE TWIN TOWERS

By Abel Ashes Hull Simmons, July 2004 (revised March 2005)

The Twin Towers did NOT just fall apart and “collapse”, they each exploded progressively “in a southerly direction”.

According to an article about Controlled Demolition Inc.’s “controlled progressive collapse” of the Biltmore Hotel in McGraw-Hill’s Construction Weekly on October 20, 1977, ” when it fell, the 245-ft-high structure became the tallest steel-framed building to be demolished with explosives.” This demolition was visually very similar to the “collapses” of both the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center.

The Twin Towers were 110 stories high each and were also extremely strong steel framed structures. It is a matter of public record that Controlled Demolition, Inc. was hired to dispose of the remains of the Twin Towers and that CDI (Controlled Demolition, Inc.) is the world’s leader in the art and science controlled demolitions. It is also a matter of public record that CDI did the demolition and cleanup of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City after the tragic multiple bomb bombing of that building on April 19th of 1995. In the case of the Murrah Federal Building, the rubble was taken to an isolated private landfill in the desert, buried, and surrounded by fencing and Wackenhut security guards.

Since the controlled demolition of the Biltmore Hotel, so strongly resembles that of each of the Twin Towers and since the Biltmore Hotel was made of similar construction materials as those used in the construction of the Twin Towers it may be useful to examine how the Biltmore was demolished.

The 1977 article goes on to say, “CDI placed 991 separate charges, about 800 lbs. of explosives in all, on seven floors from the basement to the 14th floor and detonated them over a five-second interval. CDI’s detonation sequence aimed to drop the building in a southerly direction in what is called a controlled progressive collapse in order to lay out the demolished structure to ease removal of debris.”

In the case of the Twin Towers, the tower that was hit second collapsed first, that is, the South Tower was progressively demolished 56 minutes after flight 175 was flown into it’s corner, while the North Tower was progressively collapsed 1 hour and 44 minutes after being hit directly by flight 11. The fire in the North Tower, which is alleged to have lead to it’s collapse in whole or in part, was more intense than in the South Tower for which fire was also alleged to have been the cause or one of the causes of collapse.

Neither jet fuel, nor office furniture and building materials could have produced temperatures high enough (1538oC, i.e. 2800oF) to melt or deform the massive steel beams and trusses in the World Trade Center towers sufficient to cause total collapse and disintegration of each tower, let alone in such a spontaneous and symmetrical fashion as millions observed on 9/11/01. Especially strong were the enormous core-columns in the center of the towers near the elevator shafts. Fire has never in history caused the total collapse and disintegration of a steel-framed building and there have been many fires in steel framed buildings that were much more intense and which burned much longer than those in the Twin Towers. Fire did not and could not have caused the Twin Towers or any other building’s concrete to spontaneously explode into a fine powder nor could fire have caused steel beams to be broken and propelled hundreds of feet horizontally in a constant, rapid, symmetrical, downward, progressive wave of disintegration.

Since the fire theory was exposed as laugh-out-loud stupid another pseudo-explanation has emerged. Now we are being told that perhaps a combination of the impact of the airplanes, the fires, and the incompetence of the architecture of the Twin Towers lead to their demise. There are a number of huge problems with this idiotic explanation.

1. The World Trade Center was made with some of the largest, strongest fire-retardant steel beams of any building in history.

2. If the Twin Towers had collapsed due to unsymmetrical impact and unsymmetrical fires then the collapses of the Twin Towers would not have been symmetrical they would have been messy, partial, incomplete, and much more dangerous to people, structures, and equipment in the surrounding area as they would have either sheared off vertically or buckled and toppled onto the surrounding buildings and people. Instead they collapsed completely and vertically, aside from the fractured steel and other solid debris that was propelled, at high speeds, horizontally, hundreds of feet in all directions and the huge clouds of powdered concrete/glass/insulation/human remains/etcetera that were propelled thousands of feet in all directions, down the streets and avenues of Lower Manhattan.

3. As anyone can plainly see from any and all photos and/or videos of the destruction of the World Trade Center, the Twin Towers did not fall apart and fall down they each exploded in a progressive wave from their upper floors and near their impact zones downward toward their basements.

4. World Trade Center Building 7 collapsed in the manner of a conventional implosion style controlled demolition at 5:20 PM on September 11th 2001. Building 7 was also a steel-framed building bringing the number of steel-framed buildings that have completely collapsed and/or disintegrated allegedly due to fire to a grand total of three. That’s only three steel-framed buildings that have allegedly collapsed due to fire throughout history and they all collapsed on the same day in the same part of town in the same city. Are you really stupid enough to believe that that is even remotely possible?

5. The Twin Towers each fell at roughly the rate of free fall. That is, they each fell at about the same speed that an object would if it were dropped from the roof of either of the Twin Towers. In the case of each Twin Tower, within 15 seconds there was nothing left above ground level aside from a pile of steel reinforcement columns and lots of powder dust, they fell as though there were no floors below the collapsing section to “pancake” onto, as though there was no resistance to the progressive collapse, but air. The only way this is possible is if the floors were destroyed progressively before the mass above them could meet their resistance. A “controlled progressive collapse” similar to the one used by CDI to destroy the Biltmore Hotel best explains the lack of any resistance to the force of gravity.

6. A substantial number of office workers, firemen, policemen, news reporters, and other World Trade Center survivors and eyewitnesses have made statements, on- the-record, that are consistent with the deliberate “controlled progressive collapse” style controlled demolition hypothesis I have presented above.

Eyewitnesses and experts WTC testimonies consistent with allegations of deliberate demolitions

The article referenced above regarding the controlled progressive collapse of the Biltmore Hotel in Oklahoma City:

- Engineering News Record
 McGraw-Hill's Construction Weekly
 October 20, 1977

Seconds after the final warning signal blared Sunday afternoon at a downtown redevelopment site in Oklahoma City, precisely placed explosive charges dropped a 28-story building almost in its tracks. When it fell, the 245-ft-high structure became the tallest steel-frame building to be demolished with explosives.

Built in 1932 of heavy beams and beefed-up steel columns, the Biltmore Hotel stood in the way of a $39-million urban renewal plan to construct a cultural and recreational complex. Some structures on the site have been removed while others await demolition.

But none presented the problems that the Biltmore did. "It’ s the heaviest steel we’ve ever worked on," says Mark Loizeaux, of Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI), Towson, Md., which dropped the brick-clad structure for contractor Wells Excavating Co., Inc., Oklahoma City.

"Because of the thickness of the steel, a single charge wouldn't penetrate completely through," he says. “We had to attack a single 3-in.-thick stem plate from both sides." Each 16-in. steel column with built-up flanges totals 2.5 to 3 tons per floor.

To blast in this fashion, says Loizeaux, it is imperative that the charges on opposing sides go off simultaneously. If one goes off too soon, it will dislodge the other before it can cut through the steel.

CDI placed 991 separate charges, about 800 lbs. of explosives in all, on seven floors from the basement to the 14th floor and detonated them over a five-second interval. CDI’s detonation sequence aimed to drop the building in a southerly direction in what is called a controlled progressive collapse in order to lay out the demolished structure to ease removal of debris.

Besides concern over the size of the steel frame members, CDI took a hard look at the type of steel, which Loizeaux describes as malleable. He says such steel doesn't break readily and "can get real testy." But the building fell, as planned, and CDI walked away with its share of the $207,000 demolition general contract.

In 1975 CDI demolished a 32-story reinforced concrete building in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the only building taller than the Biltmore to be dropped with explosives (ENR 11/27/75 p. 11). That building stood 361 ft high.

 

Can also be read on Controlled Demolition Inc.’s website:  http://controlled-demolition.com/default.asp?reqLocId=7&reqItemId=20030226162334

 

 

Article on CDI’s work at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City from the official corporate website of Controlled Demolition Inc.

As the initial rescue operations continued, General Services Administration, the owner of the Murrah Building, contacted Robert Hill, Vice President of the Dallas-based structural engineering firm, Brockette, Davis & Drake and Mark Loizeaux, President of Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI) of Phoenix, Maryland to evaluate the integrity of the structure and to identify the extent of demolition required for that portion of the structure which did not fail in the initial collapse. Robert Hill quickly determined that the main tower of the Murrah Building was damaged beyond repair and that the safest methodology for demolition of the damaged structure was implosion.

While final decisions concerning the demolition were being made, CDI was contracted by the GSA to salvage sensitive government paperwork from the building prior to demolition.

Granite was salvaged from undamaged portions of the building to later be used in a memorial for the victims of the bombing. Doug Loizeaux, Vice President of CDI, coordinated the operation and hired NADC member, Midwest Wrecking to assist with the salvage operations. Midwest Wrecking had been on site since the April 19th bombing, assisting with rescue operations. Ben Kates and David Densmore of Midwest Wrecking coordinated salvage operations with CDI.

Once the final determination was made to implode the building, CDI mobilized a crew to commence preparation activities. It was determined that the 3-story, underground parking lot located to the south of the structure, and literally touching the Murrah Building, was structurally sound and an attempt would be made to minimize damage to the adjacent garage.

Preparation operations for the implosion were more sophisticated than those required for a "normal implosion operation." When a structure is imploded, the contractor relies on the structural integrity of the building being demolished to assist in the control of the fall of the structure. In the case of the Murrah Building, the structural integrity of the building had been compromised by the terrorist blast, therefore, reconstructive operations had to be conducted to augment the structural integrity of the building in order to control its fall away from the adjacent parking garage.

CDI crews worked on a fast-track basis to prepare the structure for subsequent explosives placement. Less than 150 pounds of explosives placed in 420 locations was used to fell the structure.

At 7:00 am on Wednesday, May 24, 1995, the remains of the building that was the target of America's deadliest domestic terrorist attack crumbled neatly in seven (7) seconds. The results of the implosion surpassed expectations. The Murrah Building fell as planned, leaving the adjacent parking structure intact.

The implosion proved to be a catharsis for the American People who had watched the tragedy unfold since the bombing of April 19th. It was now a time to begin the healing process and start a new chapter for Oklahoma City.

 

Can also be read here:

http://controlled-demolition.com/default.asp?reqLocId=7&reqItemId=20030317124730

To learn more visit:

Jim Hoffman’s excellent 9/11-analysis website

The website of Controlled Demolition, Inc.

“NIST WTC investigation website”: http://wtc.nist.gov

“NIST WTC press releases”: http://wtc.nist.gov/media

 “Skyscrapers’ supporters Infuriated By Fire Fearmongers”: http://enr.construction.com/features/buildings/archives/040607-1.asp

“Stupid Al-Qaeda patsy/puppets think God blew up the Twin Towers”:http://www.why-war.com/news/2004/08/03/binladin.html

PlaguePuppy’s website  http://home.comcast.net/~jeffrey.king2/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html