WTC 7 Not Destroyed by Fire, Concludes Final University of Alaska Fairbanks Report: Guest Column

Introduction: The Justice Integrity Project presents an important guest column below that summarizes a four-year report issued on March 25 undermining the conclusions of the U.S. government’s official conclusions about what caused the collapse of Building 7 at the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks in New York’s lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001.

The report’s primary author is Dr. Leroy Hulsey, the much-honored chairman of the Department of Engineering and Mines at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. The research was funded by fund-raising by the more than three thousand members of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 truth.

As professionals in building construction, the group has argued that the cause of the collapse of Building 7 and two other World Trade Center Towers needs to be determined without doubt because these are the only three steel-framed high-rises in world history alleged to have collapsed purely from fire.

Other groups, researchers and concerned citizens have focused also on larger historical implications of the 9/11, including the ongoing U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. In view of these implications, the Project’s editor has spoken widely about the research and in recent years has served on the national advisory committee of the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry, which under the leadership of President David Meiswinkle and Executive Director Mick Harrison works cooperatively with Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth and victim families.     

By Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth Staff:

The destruction of the 47-story World Trade Center Building 7 in New York City late in the afternoon of September 11, 2001, was not a result of fires, according to the much-anticipated final report issued today by researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF).

The UAF team’s findings, which were the result of a four-year computer modeling study of the tower’s collapse, contradict those of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which concluded in a 2008 report that WTC 7 was the first tall building ever to collapse primarily due to fire.

“Our study found that the fires in WTC 7 could not have caused the observed collapse,” said Professor Leroy Hulsey, right, the study’s principal investigator. “The only way it could have fallen in the observed manner is by the near-simultaneous failure of every column.”
“The only way it could have fallen in the observed manner is by the near-simultaneous failure of every column.” — Professor Leroy Hulsey

The four-year study was funded by Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911Truth), a nonprofit organization representing more than 3,000 architects and engineers who have signed the organization’s petition calling for a new investigation into the destruction of the three World Trade Center towers on 9/11.

“We are proud to have supported the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Professor Leroy Hulsey in conducting a genuinely scientific study into the reasons for this building’s collapse,” said Richard Gage, president and founder of AE911Truth. “It is now incumbent upon the building community, the media, and government officials to reckon with the implications of these findings and launch a new full-scale investigation.”

AE911Truth and its allies among the 9/11 victims’ families will now use the findings in the report as part of a formal “request for correction” that the group plans to submit to NIST in the coming days. “The indisputable errors documented in our request for correction will give NIST no way out of correcting its deeply flawed report and reversing its conclusion that fires were the cause of the collapse,” said Gage.

“It is now incumbent upon the building community, the media, and government officials to reckon with the implications of these findings and launch a new full-scale investigation.” — Richard Gage, AIA

The final report, entitled A Structural Reevaluation of the Collapse of World Trade Center 7 – Final Report, includes clarifications and supplemental text based on public comments submitted in response to a draft report released by UAF and AE911Truth on September 3, 2019.

The UAF team’s final report is the result of an extensive four-year computer modeling effort that was followed by a robust peer review process. The peer review included dozens of public comments as well as external review by two independent experts, Dr. Gregory Szuladzinski of Analytical Service Company, a leading expert in structural mechanics and finite element modeling, and Dr. Robert Korol, a professor emeritus of civil engineering at McMaster University and a fellow of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering.

“I am grateful to everyone who supported or participated in this study in any way,” said Professor Hulsey. “We hope that our findings will be carefully looked at by the building community and spur further investigation into how this building came down on that tragic day.”

The Hulsey report and supporting materials can be found on UAF’s Institute of Northern Engineering website and on the AE911Truth website.

Richard Gage (shown at left on one of the most downloaded C-SPAN program in its history) and civil engineer Roland Angle held a live virtual presentation on March 26, 2020 to outline the findings contained in the final report. Please tune in or watch the archived presentation here.

Contact the author Andrew Kreig

Related Coverage

In 2016, the Justice Integrity Project published the following regarding interim findings by the University of Alaska at Fairbanks study, which has undergone further confirmation and documentation of its initial findings:

Justice Integrity Project, Experts Reject Planes, Fire As Cause For 9/11 WTC Collapses, Andrew Kreig, Sept. 23, 2016. Technical experts are mounting major challenges to official U.S. government accounts of how three World Trade Center skyscrapers collapsed symmetrically and in near-freefall as part of the 9/11 attacks 15 years ago.

Many researchers are focusing especially on the little-known collapse of World Trade Center (WTC) Building 7, portrayed in the 10:08 min. video above.

The 47-story steel-frame building was not hit by an airplane and was located 355 feet north from WTC 1 and 2, “the Twin Towers.” It collapsed in 6.5 seconds seven hours after the Twin Towers fell. The first 2.5 seconds of the WTC 7 collapse exhibited absolute free fall, according to scientific measurements by physicist David Chandler.

The collapses exhibited so many signatures of controlled demolition that experts who have studied them are increasingly questioning the official claims of causation, which U.S. authorities and the mainstream media have ascribed to airplane impacts of WTC 1 and 1 and resultant fires.

Last month, Europhysics News published 15 Years Later: On the physics of high-rise building collapses. The report challenged U.S. government findings that the skyscrapers collapsed due to fire. The four co-authors noted that no other steel-framed skyscrapers in world history have ever collapsed from fire (and each of the Twin towers had been specifically designed to more than withstand the impact of a civilian airline like those on 9/11.

Instead, the authors cited compelling evidence that the collapses followed the physics of controlled demolition.

Similarly, the first day of the 9/11 Justice in Focus conference brought together prominent 9/11 technical and legal experts in New York City Sept. 10-11 for an in-depth examination of the physical evidence relating to the WTC collapses, as well as a variety of related issues, such as legal precedents in landmark cases. The second day was a symposium on which legal venues and legal procedures can best advance research and result in legal remedies congruent with forensic evidence evaluated by legal review panels. 

Dr. Leroy Hulsey, shown at right in a Justice Integrity Project photo, summed up the results of his University of Alaska team by telling noted public interest attorney Daniel Sheehan that there is “zero” chance that WTC 7 collapsed due to fire, which is the official U.S. government explanation. Hulsey is the chairman of the civil and environmental engineering department at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.

Hulsey’s remarks during the forum at New York City’s historic Cooper Union typified other engineering experts’ conclusions. The conference “Justice In Focus 9/11 2016″ was co-sponsored by the 2,700-member group Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911 Truth), a non-profit, non-partisan body.