An article about James Quintiere and his thoughts on the NIST investigation is
linked here.
Quote:
"James Quintiere, Ph.D., former Chief of the Fire Science Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has called for an independent review of NIST’s investigation into the collapses of the World Trade Center Towers on 9/11.
Dr. Quintiere made his plea during his presentation, “Questions on the WTC Investigations” at the 2007 World Fire Safety Conference. “I wish that there would be a peer review of this,” he said, referring to the NIST investigation. “I think all the records that NIST has assembled should be archived. I would really like to see someone else take a look at what they’ve done; both structurally and from a fire point of view.”
“I think the official conclusion that NIST arrived at is questionable,” explained Dr. Quintiere. “Let's look at real alternatives that might have been the cause of the collapse of the World Trade Towers and how that relates to the official cause and what's the significance of one cause versus another.”
Dr. Quintiere, one of the world’s leading fire science researchers and safety engineers, also encouraged his audience of fellow researchers and engineers to scientifically re-examine the WTC collapses. “I hope to convince you to perhaps become 'Conspiracy Theorists', but in a proper way,” he said.
In his hour-long presentation, Dr. Quintiere discussed many elements of NIST’s investigation that he found problematic. He emphasized, “In every investigation I’ve taken part in, the key has been to establish a timeline. And the timeline is established by witness accounts, by information from alarm systems, by any video that you might have of the event, and then by calculations. And you try to put all of this together. And if your calculations are consistent with some of these hard facts, then perhaps you can have some comfort in the results of your calculations. I have not seen a timeline placed in the NIST report.”
Dr. Quintiere also expressed his frustration at NIST’s failure to provide a report on the third skyscraper that collapsed on 9/11, World Trade Center Building 7. “And that building was not hit by anything,” noted Dr. Quintiere. “It’s more important to take a look at that. Maybe there was damage by the debris falling down that played a significant role. But other than that you had fires burning a long time without fire department intervention. And firefighters were in that building. I have yet to see any kind of story about what they saw. What was burning? Were photographs taken? Nothing!”
This person used to lead the Fire Science Division at the NIST. He followed the NIST WTC investigation and his (very critical) comments are included in the 2005 congressional transcripts on the results of the NIST report.
This is what poster SanderO just wrote about an exchange he had with Dr Quintiere:
"I attended a seminar at John Jay College a number of years ago at the Christian Regenhard Center. Quintierre, Ms Regenhard, Prof. Glenn Corbett were among those who attended. The seminar was to examine the response and investigation of NIST. They looked at official responses to large fires in the past, egress issues and so on.
They did not discuss engineering at all. I had the honor to speak with A few of the presenters including Quintierre and Ms Regenhard (She did not present)... and did an over view to Quintierre about ROOSD. He was interested but said he was not an structural engineer and not competent to evaluate its veracity. We corresponded a bit after that."