* One Meridian Plaza fire blazed for 18 hours, gutting 8 floors. * First Interstate Bank Building fire burned for 3-1/2 hours, gutting 4 floors.
These fires were much worse than those in the Twin Towers and Building 7.*****
(*****I think that this is a very bold assertion)
If you don't mind my non-expert opinion, let's compare the fires.
WT1 + WT2 were damaged by impacts from large airplanes, fires were fueled by whatever normal flammables there were inside the building as well as thousands of gallons of jet fuel. Firefighers did attempt to fight the fires, but I'm not sure how much success they were having in the short time they had dozens of floors above the street. These fires are difficult to compare to Meridian and First Interstate because of the impact damage, the jet fuel, and the fact that WT1 + WT2 were twice the size of the other 2.
WT7 was not significantly damaged by impacts, and there couldn't have been much jet fuel that made it there. The big difference between this fire and the Meridian Plaza / First Interstate fires though is that WT7 was allowed to burn out of control. AFAIK No attempt was made to actively combat the fire. Firefighting abilities were severly hampered by firefighter loss of life, loss of infrastructure, and general state of emergency / war zone at ground zero.
In contrast, in the Meridian Plaza fire "caused three firefighter fatalities and injuries to 24 firefighters. The 12-alarms brought 51 engine companies, 15 ladder companies, 11 specialized units, and over 300 firefighters to the scene." http://www.iklimnet.com/hotelfires/meridienplaza.html
