The one has nothing to do with the other. NIST were looking for the specific point of failure. The firefighters immediate concerns were not at that level of detail.
So what level of detail made them know for sure it was collapsing that NIST had no clue about for a few years? The mysterious "bulge" that never appears in any photo or video and that had nothing to do with the collapse?
Their immediate concern was is this building coming down not do you suppose thermal expansion is occurring at column 79 about the 13th floor.
And they knew it was collapsing down to a few minutes and in one case, they could even count it down to the second. And who do you suppose buys this delusion? Oh right, all the ones who spend 24/7 defending the fairy tale in this forum.
So to summarize the fairy tale.
1. 4 hours before it collapsed, they knew it was going to happen, because of the bulge that didn't cause the collapse.
2. Minutes before the collapse, they knew it was going to collapse within minutes because of the bulge that someone saw 4 hours earlier.
3. Someone told the MSM it was going to collapse a few minutes before and two of them made a mistake and reported it as a collapse about 20 minutes before it did. One said it already collapsed but it collapsed as they were saying it already collapsed. One said it was going to collapse about a minute before it did.
4. Seconds before the collapse, they started the countdown because the bulge told them to count down at that time but the bulge wasn't responsible for the collapse anyway.
5. NIST initially didn't know about any of the above and didn't ask anyone who knew and didn't mention anything about a bulge. The cause of the collapse was a mystery even though firefighters knew from experience what no firefighter ever experienced. Maybe they should have just asked the firefighters and saved over 2 years of playing computer programming GIGO. Then they could have just said it was the bulge when it wasn't.
6. 2+ years later, NIST had a eureka moment because they figured out if you leave out a few things here and there and make up a few things here and there, a NEW PHENOMENA happens, thermal expansion, which has nothing to do with a bulge or a countdown.
What's there to think about? You truthers just don't think. The above logic is brought to you by those who think. You can't make this schyt up if you tried.