CR, that was my call to make at the time. It was too dangerous, given the lack of perimeter security. the late hour (2-3am) the presence of many drunk or stoned people wandering past our security zone,
and the difficulty of removing and transporting a sign that big that would have been partially fused, also, our strained small crew and limited budget came into play.. The big point, is that the thermite samples taken from TruthBurn matched samples from WTC dust as shown by Dr. Steven Jones with electron microscopy. Steven presented this comparison in a few public lectures. We did melt a steel beam underneath the sign with about 80 lbs of thermite, (the biggest thermite demo at Burning Man historically) , proving thermite's steel destroying powers, but more importantly, we were able to demonstrate the chemical links between WTC dust and our thermite residue from the TruthBurn event. The sign is alive for future events.