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The Rio building collapses and 9/11.


Len Colby

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As can be expected the building collapses are dominating news coverage here. A few observations:

- The collapse initiated near the top of the tallest of the three buildings.

- No one knows what caused collapse initiation but apparently the dynamic mass of the upper floors was enough to bring down the lower ones as well as the smaller buildings to one side of it.

- According to the civil engineer responsible for reforms on the 9th floor the taller building had no internal columns only perimeter ones

- The collapse was essentially symmetrical.

- Large amounts of smoke were generated by the collapse. These clouds were eerily similar to the ones on 9/11 which some CTs claim were evidence or perhaps even proof of explosives and/or incendiaries.

- Two days after the collapses fires continue to break out in the debris pile. The fire department needs to throw large amount of water on the pile to keep them under control.

- Despite the fact the buildings were much shorter and less massive than the WTC most of the debris was broken into small pieces. When I watched the news a few hours ago a reporter at the scene said that a bathroom sink was (my translation) “one of the largest intact pieces”

There are significant differences though:

- the 20-story building as almost certainly had a re-enforced concrete frame.

- Apparently unauthorized alterations were made to some of the lower floors that MAY have lessened their resistive capacity.

- According to the engineer cited above it didn’t any beams, re-enforced concrete slabs provided horizontal stiffness.

- The other 2 buildings were quite old one was built in the 1930’s

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