For what it's worth...
The pools of molten stuff and the continued hot spots...
Any metal fire will be exacerbated by the presence of water. It rained for days after the collapse and NY's Finest poured water on the metal fires to put them out, I guess.. days and days they poured water down there... It rained alot in those day until it went out in end Dec '01..
"Fire is a very uncontrolled process. Nonetheless, it requires 4
factors: FUEL, OXIDANT, HEAT, IGNITION SOURCE. So "how" a fire
behaves depends upon the characteristics of these 4 factors, and how
they interact with one another. With regard to your question:
If the fuel is a burning metal, the addition of water will
almost certainly aggravate the fire because most hot metals react
with water, frequently liberating hydrogen gas which would explode.
So adding water to any fire in which the FUEL reacts with water
will increase the severity of the fire. Neither water nor CO2
should be used against a metal fire -- both serve as further fuel
and/or oxidant for the metal fire.
If the fuel is hot enough it is possible that the water would
turn to steam before it ever reaches the origin of the ignition.
This hot steam would rise causing turbulence, drawing in more air
(OXIDANT) from the bottom, making the fire worse. A related effect
is if the water hits the burning surface, then turns to steam,
expands, and exposes more fuel to the air. Here, too, the water
could make the fire worse by exposing more fuel to the other
components of the fire.
Yet another way that water can make a fire worse is if the fire
is the surface of a burning liquid that is less dense than water.
Here, even if the fire is not so hot, the water can sink beneath
the surface of the less dense flammable liquid. The water then
starts to heat rapidly, but is covered by the burning liquid. If
the conditions are right the steam formed beneath the surface of
the burning fuel will "burp", explosively spreading the burning liquid.
You can see that "fire" is not a simple process, and "pouring
gasoline on a fire" is not the only way to make it worse."