Free Republic

California’s Department of Insurance wants to require insurers to take homeowners’ efforts to reduce wildfire risk into account when setting premiumsWhen Ashley Raveche and her husband bought their home in Mill Valley, they thought they were doing everything right. The 1,300 square foot house already had vents with screens that make it harder for embers to get in and a tar and gravel roof, top-rated for fire safety. They installed double-paned windows, which are less likely to explode under extreme heat. They cut down four trees within 10 feet of their house. They kept the gutter and roof clear, and...

NEW YORK - Federal investigators said Tuesday the World Trade Center buildings probably would not have collapsed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks if fireproofing had adhered firmly to the columns and floors. The National Institute of Standards and Technology also concluded that the average survivor took more than double the estimated time to descend emergency stairwells, and that better communication between emergency responders could have saved more lives. The NIST, which issued three reports on the attacks, did not blame designers or builders for the buildings' collapse. However, Shyam Sunder, who led NIST's fire and safety investigation, said there...

Burn Rate of WTC Cubicles Key to Probe GAITHERSBURG, Md. (AP) - Computers and other office equipment fueled the World Trade Center fires long after the jets that crashed into the towers incinerated, suggesting a need to consider new fire codes for modern office buildings, federal investigators said Tuesday. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is investigating the cause of the buildings' collapse on Sept. 11, 2001, recreated the World Trade Center fire in a mock cubicle. Investigators discovered that while the jet fuel and the plane's contents burned up in a matter of minutes, the contents of...

<p>Fireproofing on the steel floor supports in the World Trade Center was never tested and may have been too thin to hold up in a fire for the two-hour minimum set by the city building code, federal investigators said yesterday. The north tower fell about an hour and 45 minutes after terrorists attacked with the first hijacked jetliner on Sept. 11, 2001. The south tower collapsed about an hour after it was struck. Nearly 2,800 people were killed.</p>