Were you aware that any steel-framed building is now susceptible to sudden and total collapse? Official US findings have concluded that normal office fires burning over only a few floors and for only 6 hours, can cause total and catastrophic collapse leaving no time for evacuation. The building featured in this film fell from 47 storeys into just a few piles of rubble within 7 seconds. The cause is cited as thermal expansion acting upon connections around composite beams.
What is more disturbing is the fact very few firefighters are aware of this problem. Not only that, hardly anything has been changed with building codes and regulations to prevent such a catastrophic failure again. Training has not been modified for fire crews, engineering has not been corrected. The silence has been deafening...
How fast can you run?
