Uhm, yeah. And most structural steels have lost over half their strength by the time they hit 900F or so. They don’t need to melt to fail.
If you are trying to melt iron, pyrloyse the wood or coal first - you don’t want to poison the melt with the volatile elements. You want to be burning nearly as pure carbon as possible. Charcoal and coke work well, wood and raw coal don’t.
