WASHINGTON — A federal agency staffed with some of the world’s preeminent chemists and engineers has conducted only four investigations into building failures in the past 20 years, each time when the loss of life is high or the cause couldn’t immediately be determined.
After it was given the authority to take on investigations following 9/11, the National Institute of Standards and Technology spent years looking into the 2001 World Trade Center collapse, which killed 2,763 people; the 2003 Rhode Island nightclub fire, which killed 100; the 2011 Joplin, Missouri, tornado that killed 158; and it launched an ongoing investigation into Hurricane Maria in 2018, where more than 3,000 people died.
The Champlain Towers South condo collapse — where 11 people were confirmed dead as of Tuesday afternoon with 150 unaccounted for — is looking ever more likely to become the agency’s fifth.
