The tricked people with a simple misdirection. "Oh, look, something shiny..." Their strawman was about weakening steel, not melting steel. Then you get people talking about how this threads of steel Brillo might melt with a small amount of forced air, far from this scenery, as is the wind blowing flames of burning carpet, paper, and curtains.

Anyone who read the NIST report can instantly tell it is a collection of hand-wavy excuses with a predetermined result. The lack of a real investigation is a dead give away. No investigation started for a year after it happened, even.