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This eight ton steel I-beam is six inches thick. It was selected to be preserved for future generations for the near perfect horseshoe bend ... it bent without almost a single crack in it. It takes thousands of degrees to bend steel like this.
Following the World Trade Center collapses thermal hot spots with temperatures in excess of 700�C existed deep within the wreckage of the buildings. These temperatures were sustained for a long period of time.
The temperature at the core of "the pile," is near 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, according to fire officials, who add that the fires are too deep for firefighters to get to. [ABC News, 9/18/01]
"This is how it's been since day one...and this is six weeks later. As we get closer to the center of this it gets hotter and hotter - it's probably 1500 degrees."
"Out on the rubble it's still, I believe, 1,100 degrees. The guys boots just melt within a few hours."
In perfect conditions the maximum temperature that can be reached by hydrocarbons such as jet fuel burning in air is 1520� F (825� C). When the World Trade Center collapsed the deeply buried fires would have been deprived of oxygen and their temperatures would have significantly decreased.
Why was the temperature at the core of "the pile" nearly 500� F hotter than the maximum burning temperature of jet fuel a full seven days after the collapses? There were no infernos in either of the twin towers before they collapsed, so what caused the hot spots deep in their wreckage?
Dr. Frank Gayle, Metals Expert, on the jet fuel fires which burned in the WTC buildings:
"Your gut reaction would be the jet fuel is what made the fire so very intense, a lot of people figured that's what melted the steel. Indeed it didn't, the steel did not melt." [Firehouse.com]
Molten steel did not exist in the WTC buildings prior to the collapses, but...
Molten steel was found �three, four, and five weeks later, when the rubble was being removed [from WTCs 1 & 2],� Loizeaux said. He said molten steel was also found at 7 WTC, which collapsed mysteriously in the late afternoon.