Fire Collapsed WTC 7: Report

Building was next to twin towers
By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 21, 2008 12:10 PM CDT
Fire Collapsed WTC 7: Report
In this Sept. 11, 2007 file photo, family members of the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York place flowers at the reflecting pool at ground zero.   (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Fires, not explosives, caused the collapse of World Trade Center 7—a skyscraper near the twin towers—on Sept. 11, a 3-year US government investigation concludes. Scientists with the National Institute of Standards and Technology say the 47-story tower was destroyed by fires, made worse by a failed sprinkler system after the crumbling twin towers broke a city water main, the AP reports.

Conspiracy theorists have long blamed the fall of WTC 7 on other reasons, including bombs placed internally. The government report also indicates that the collapse of the building is the only known instance of fire leading to the total failure of a skyscraper. (More World Trade Center stories.)

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