Sprinklers sabotaged? I don’t see why they would bother, since water can’t extinguish jet fuel. The sprinklers probably would have just made it worse. Don’t want to get too far off topic though, just was curious about that.
If the sprinklers were working, they could have cooled the steel below its softening point.
Water is used shipboard to fight jet fuel fires, both to sweep flaming fuel off the decks and as a fog to reduce the oxygen available and cool the affected area.
I don’t think that even the engineering trained bin Laden depended on total building collapses, but he would diligently do all he could to maximize damage.
Interfering with fire suppression would be well within those efforts.
No sprinklers, and the fire can spread throughout the buildings, sprinklers and there is a chance it can be confined to the impact floors.
Diddling with the sprinklers was cheap insurance. AFAIK, the guy that did it is a free man!
Sprinklers may have helped, because while they would have spread the burning jet fuel, they also would have spread OUT the burning jet fuel, and whatever ignited because of it would have burned cooler. Also, the water might have cooled down the beams enough to keep them from buckling.
On the other hand, with an airplane just having run right through your sprinkler riser system, it’s not going to be easy to get water above the fire. Just one of those things nobody thought about before — what to do if someone drives a plane through your building.