Second letter to O'Reilly at Fox News (no response)
(c) 2001, Mike Barkley

From: "Michael Barkley", mjbarkl@inreach.com
To: oreilly@foxnews.com
Subject: McNierney
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 00:47:53 -0800

A response by someone from the N.Y. Port Authority Architectural/ Engineering Community, from,

http://www.designcommunity.com/discussion.html

> Posted by Patrick J. McNierney on November 12, 2001 at 08:53:07:
>
> In Reply to: WTC stairwells - How many killed by Port Authority Greed?
> posted by Mike Barkley on November 12, 2001 at 01:23:34:
>
> To All,
>
> Port Authority "Greed" ( whatever that is ...) didn't kill anyone...
>
> The aftermath of several suicide bombers who hijacked a plane
> killed several thousands ...
>
> Let's not point fingers on this "Greed" issue.
> Also, please read my article in this week's
> edition of "Architecture Week"
>
> Patrick J. McNierney

That would be: "Early Days at the Disaster",
by Patrick J. McNierney ?? http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2001/1107/building_1-1.html ??

It would seem that you are no more objective than I am. What consolation is it to me that compromises were needed to make the project "work" while I'm burning alive a hundred stories above the ground? I'm quite happy to accept compromises provided I and everyone I know get out safely.

Blame has been appropriately placed on:
--intelligence establishment (CIA/FBI/ETC.) failures
--immigration control failures
--airport/airline security failures

Why should the Port Authority escape its fair share?

GREED.

By the Port Authority in specifying the square footage in the project.

I specify a use of my land that is so intensive, my architect must design a house of cards to make it work. You, the terrorist, being a trained civil engineer (Osama bin Laden?) and architectural planner (Mohammed Atta?), with access to internet design sites for major buildings, grasp the vulnerabilities, and come along and kick out one of the cards, causing the whole thing to collapse killing, oh, 5,000 - 6,000 people.

Do I not share culpability?

Add to that, locked fire stairs - both entrance to and exit from, inadequate fire stairwell integrity, clustered fire stair locations, no roof access, no rooftop evacuation plan, roof evacuation capability prevented by both design and procedures, no provision to control stairwell flooding, structural collapse at the bottom of at least one fire stairs, narrow fire stairs, lack of consistent planning for evacuation of disabled tenants, absence of diagrams in the bottoms of stairwells directing evacuees to the next stairwell down, poor fire stairwell pressurization and cooling, fire stair capacity so limited as to force phased rather than simultaneous evacuation, and so on.

Negligent homicide or involuntary manslaughter comes to mind....

Yes, structural disasters lead to design standard improvements. But not if nobody asks the questions, and not if nobody listens.

By the way, I mentioned that searches produced the following number of hits,

World trade center stairwells locked , 195 hits on Yahoo, 326 on Google

Well, leaving off the "s", yields,

World trade center stairwell locked , 696 on Yahoo, 1,460 on Google

Boolean searching doesn't always work on these engines....

Some more scary locked stairwell stories:

http://www.cambridge-reporter.com/news/SurvivingTerror.html
http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20010916colferap9.asp
http://alumni.udayton.edu/np_story.asp?storyID=612
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-091201color.story

And one fellow who apparently died behind locked WTC stairwell doors:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/special/attack/pages/humanimpact_0919_a3.html

--Mike Barkley, 161 N. Sheridan Ave. #1, Manteca, CA 95336
(H) 209/823-4817 , mjbarkl@inreach.com - MS is not Microsoft.
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--Mike Barkley, 161 N. Sheridan Ave. #1, Manteca, CA 95336 (H) 209/823-4817
mjbarkl@inreach.com