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The Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) plans to sponsor a fire test of a World Trade Center (WTC) tower floor system as part of its building and fire safety investigation of the WTC disaster. The test will be conducted under contract by Underwriters Laboratories in Northbrook, Illinois, on Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2004. The test of a typical WTC floor system and individual steel members will be conducted under the fire conditions prescribed in the ASTM E119 standard test.
NIST is accepting requests from news media and others, including the engineering profession, public interest groups and families of victims, emergency responders, and standards and code making organizations. Space is very limited and selections will be made based on achieving a balanced representation and time of receipt of request within each group.
A preliminary briefing to the fire test will be given at 9:00 a.m. Central Daylight Time (CDT) on August 25, followed by a viewing of the test furnace and floor specimen. A conference room has been set up to view the test remotely, including video and temperature data. The test is scheduled for completion by 5:00 p.m. CDT.
More details about attending the test are provided in a Federal Register notice published on July 26, 2004, that is available online at www.gpoaccess.gov/fr (Enter the docket number 040709204-4204-01 and the abbreviation "WTC" in the 2004 volume search to reach the notice.).
Requests to attend the fire test (except for members of the media) should be addressed to Stephen Cauffman by regular mail at NIST, 100 Bureau Dr., Stop 8611, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-8611; e-mail at wtc [at] nist.gov (wtc[at]nist[dot]gov); or fax at (301) 975-4052. Requests must be received by Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2004, at 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
Reporters wishing to attend must register by contacting Michael E. Newman at (301) 975-3025 or michael.newman [at] nist.gov (michael[dot]newman[at]nist[dot]gov). The deadline for registration is the same as above.
Additional information on the NIST World Trade Center investigation can be found at http://wtc.nist.gov/.