Tinfoil Keffiyah Brigade

Michelle Malkin quotes a Muslim Imam who was, for a short time, hired as a chaplain for the New York Fire Department:

I've heard professionals say that nowhere ever in history did a steel building come down with fire alone," he said. "It takes two or three weeks to demolish a building like that. But it was pulled down in a couple of hours. Was it 19 hijackers who brought it down, or was it a conspiracy?

I sent a note about that notion to Michelle, which I reproduce here:

If that Imam has heard a "professional" say that a steel building has never been brought down by fire alone, he must have been talking to a doctor or lawyer, because a professional engineer or architect would never say such an absurdity. Fire is THE single greatest threat to steel structures, which will fail spectacularly when overheated (I could go on about the modulus of elasticity and plastic deflection, but that is beyond necessary). That is why steel is often sprayed with expensive fireproofing combounds and encased in multiple layers of gypsum board. Concrete and masonry aren't much affected by fire, but steel is - and famously.