After a high-level meeting on February 13, CCTV issued a report that shows that only the surface of the building was damaged. The amazing fire we saw on the images and videos was actually the zinc alloy burning very fast (melts at 400ºC, versus 1000ºC fireworks can get). Anyway, a Chinese architecture expert puts this in doubt, saying that interior equipment had to be damaged. Now it´s up to the engineers to decide the future of the building.
After seeing images of the building after the fire, compared with the flames seen the night before, this zinc alloy skin burn makes sense…. I don´t think any building could resist a fire like that coming from the inside.
Also in the announcement, CCTV said it will move to their new building sometime near October 1.
For more details, go to the Caijing Online article, here.
