That is just rust and red steel. There is no paint. Can you produce a paint sample, or has someone just monkeyed with the tinting?
From:
" FARWEST PAINT PRODUCT INFORMATION
Primers & Pre-Treatment Coatings
#1013 Red Rust Resistor Primer & Finish Coat
COLOR(S): Red.
PRODUCT TYPE: Alkyd Rust-Inhibiting Primer. (Satin Sheen)
DESCRIPTION: A high quality primer designed to provide maximum rust prevention. A combination of specially processed oils bind the rust to the metal excluding water and air which are the main cause of rust or corrosion.
Intended Use: Primer and finish coat for new or rusted metal. Used by steel fabricators and the marine industry."
Really, Galileo, you have not the slightest idea about building construction. Steel is not red, it is black.
It may be weeks after steel fabrication before steel is erected. Steel begins to rust immediately when exposed to moisture laden air. Steel primer (universally colored red) is applied to resist the rust that would prevent the sprayed and troweled fireproofing from adhering to the columns.
From NIST FAQs
" NIST researchers estimated that at least 0.13 pounds of thermite would be required to heat each pound of a steel section to approximately 700 degrees Celsius (the temperature at which steel weakens substantially). Therefore, while a thermite reaction can cut through large steel columns, many thousands of pounds of thermite would need to have been placed inconspicuously ahead of time, remotely ignited, and somehow held in direct contact with the surface of hundreds of massive structural components to weaken the building. This makes it an unlikely substance for achieving a controlled demolition."
A thin paint coating of Thermite would only have warmed up the steel a few degrees, and would need to have been applied during erection of the steel in the 1970s.
The four surfaces of the columns would need to have the fireproofing removed before application of this Thermite, but three of the four faces of the exterior columns were outside the enclosing windows, making this scenario impossible.
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`Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'