Not even a little bit, dude (and I think that I could speak for any of us).
First off: this tanker was carrying GASOLINE and in an open and oxygen rich environment. It's an overpass built with concrete and a little Rebar. You're speaking of a completely different animal. One is a STEEL BUILDING and the other CONCRETE overpass. Not even remotely similar. Same goes with comparing gasoline to jet fuel or diesel. What you're comparing is like comparing your automobile to a jetliner - both are made of metal and have rubber tires with steel wheels: only remotely similar.
Why? Gasoline has a much lower flashpoint and burns hotter. Overpass is not a building and has rebar for lateral compression support and its vertical load is supported pretty much solely by the concrete which has small voids and moisture and a drainage network for rainwater. Put a big fire underneath and heat up those voids and moisture and viola... Overpasses are not built to ANY fire code, only seismic and load bearing specs. ANy fiew related specs are minor in comparrison with the strict fire codes in NYC (the rest of the nation bases it's fire codes on them).
To point out the painfully obvious, an overpass is spanning an EMPTY space, WTC 7 is a 47 story skyscraper with thick-assed steel supports everywhere to support both the vertical loading and any horizontal stress. Finally, NO steel framed skyscraper ANYWHERE, has EVER collapsed due to fire - NEVER! There have been fires that burned intensely for 24 hours and the building was STILL standing!
Diesel fuel was for back-up generators for the emergency operations center upstairs and there is no indication (especially when you look at the building) that it ignited.
It sure doesn't look like the overpass was turned into a small pile of rubble and dropped into its own footprint.
Both Sen. Kerry and Silverstein say that the building was demo'd. I guess the leaseholder of the building in question and a U.S. Senator (who should have won the presidency) are much less on the ball than you SDW; good lookin' out! Sorry to be a smartass here but seriously, they told you what happened and you STILL don't believe it!
What they are trying to tell us with WTC 1, 2 and 7 is like saying that whole freeway interchange and not just the overpass collapsed due to a fire at that one point.
Linked are the combustion temperature and the flash point of various fuels.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_point
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_of_combustion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_fuel
http://www.hyweb.de/Knowledge/w-i-energiew-eng2.html
http://www.tcforensic.com.au/docs/article10.html
3.1 STEEL
Appearance
Temperature
Yellow
320°
Brown
350°
Purple
400°
Blue
450°
* steel starts to weaken at 200°
* loses 50% of its structural strength and sags at 550°
* melt point of steel 1100°-1650°
Note that once the steel is hot enough to sag, the steel will deform and the building will collapse. Gasoline, Diesel and Jet Fuel all burn hot enough. Gas at 21,000 isn't that far from 19,300 so the actual fuel isn't important in this case.
http://www.kuleuven.ac.be/bwk/materials/Teaching/master/wg04b/l0400.htm
"Steel members will collapse in a fire when their temperature reaches a "critical" level. This critical temperature varies according to the load conditions, the cold design theory adopted and the temperature distribution across the section, which typically is in the range 500 to 900°C.
The fire resistance time is the time, in the standard ISO834 fire test, taken by the member to reach the critical temperature. This time varies according to the section size. In a building in which a natural fire occurs the heating rate is also influenced by the member location. The thicker the steel the slower is the heating rate and therefore the greater is the fire resistance time.
The heating rate is quantified by the Section Factor, known as the Am /A ratio, where Am is the perimeter of the steel member exposed to the fire, and A is the total cross-sectional area of the section. Consequently, a heavy member with a low Am /A ratio will be heated more slowly than a light member with high value of the section factor. Tables are published giving values of section factors for standard section sizes.
For a member to fulfil a given fire resistance requirement, it is necessary to ensure that the temperature developed in the member at the required fire resistance time (taking into account its Section Factor and any insulation which may be applied) is less than the critical temperature necessary to cause failure (also known as the "critical temperature").
For short periods of fire resistance (15, 30 minutes) stability may be attained by unprotected steelwork. A fire resistance time of 60 minutes may sometimes be obtained without applying fire protection by utilising the thermal and/or structural interaction between steel and concrete. For longer periods of fire resistance time, the steelwork can be protected by applying an insulating material, by using screens, or, in the case of hollow sections, by the recirculation of water. Composite steel-concrete structures can also exhibit significant fire resistance.
A brief survey of the simpler practical means of achieving structural fire resistance in steel structures is presented. It is important to recognise, however, that considerable research and development work (fuel loads based on natural fires) is being undertaken in Europe. This work aims to optimise the process of the fire resistant design of structural steelwork leading to further economies in construction."
You don't build a requirement for fire resistance into the building code unless you have suffered a collapse due to deformation of the steel structure.
