The catastrophic events of 9/11/01 are indelibly etched into the collective minds of American citizens, but within that tragic day, many people have forgotten that there was another tower that collapsed about seven hours later after the Twin Towers had "pancaked" unto the ground. This tower, known as Building #7 WTC was a 47-story hi-rise skyscraper, that was not hit by either airplane on 9/11, but somehow, caved in and it too "pancaked" to the ground. Building 7's collapse has helped fuel the fire, of conspiracy theorists, since the tragic events of 9/11, since its destruction seems on the surface to be inexplicable, as it would appear highly improbable that a fire, alone, could take down a steel structure, yet Building #7 most definitely collapsed to the ground.
Conspiracy theorists profess to believe that a well-timed orchestrated detonation of explosives took down Building# 7, but to believe that, would implicitly mean, that the whole events of 9/11, was an "inside job", including, of course, the destruction of the Twin Towers. That above belief is patently absurd, and more a reflection of how disappointed and distressed some Americans are to have had their government lie to them on so many important issues again and again. Yet, we are still stuck with the perplexing fact that somehow Building #7 collapsed on 9/11, which appears on the surface to be absolutely astonishing.
It was not until 2008 that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) came out with their report and explanation as to the collapse of Building #7, which put the blame on the collapse of this building, essentially on fires that were generated from the Twin Towers buildings aftershock which "… ignited fires on at least 10 floors…" on Building #7. Unfortunately, the building's automatic sprinkler system failed, and the primary as well as backup water supply systems also failed, subsequently meaning that there was no obstacle in the path of this fire to continue to rage throughout the impacted floors.
NIST stated that the structure and the integrity of the building was "… designed to resist gravity loads, but not thermally induced lateral loads." Still, conspiracy buffs were quick to seize upon the seemingly important fact that no building higher than 15-stories had ever collapsed from fire alone, but this misses the basic and essential point that fire is a destructive element, and that it is fire that allows a blacksmith to bend and mold steel at around 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. Since we know that it is fire that allows steel to be structured into the size and shape that is desired, it means too, by definition that a temperature that is hot enough and sustained enough within a building structure, will, over a period of time, weakened the steel, as well as all other elements that have a even lower threshold of withstanding fire, and consequently this will ultimately challenge the integrity of the structure itself, if the fire is not contained or mitigated in some way or another. This is, in essence, is what happened to Building #7, that it was fire, out-of-control, at multiple floors that inexorably brought about its collapse.
The real lesson from the collapse of Building #7, WTC, is not that there was a conspiracy and a controlled explosion by agents within America, but that fire, raging fire, will take down within a short period of time, a very tall structures that is in theory, designed, to be able to withstand fire. This means that skyscrapers all over the world should be far more cognizant of the destruction power of unrestrained fire and should take prudent measures to mitigate this.