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A fire hit Copenhagen’s Old Stock Exchange on Tuesday, one of the Danish capital’s best-known buildings, engulfing its spire, which collapsed onto the roof in a scene reminiscent of the 2019 blaze at Paris’s Notre-Dame cathedral.
No injuries reported, but concern over loss of iconic spire, cultural artifacts inside buildingThomson Reuters
· Posted: Apr 16, 2024 4:38 AM EDT | Last Updated: April 16
Spire falls as historic stock exchange burns in DenmarkEmergency crews were on the scene in Copenhagen on Tuesday as a fire burned at the Boersen, a historic stock exchange.
A fire hit Copenhagen’s Old Stock Exchange on Tuesday, one of the Danish capital’s best-known buildings, engulfing its spire, which collapsed onto the roof in a scene reminiscent of the 2019 blaze at Paris’s Notre-Dame cathedral.
The Dutch Renaissance style building no longer houses the Danish stock exchange, but serves as headquarters for the Danish Chamber of Commerce. Emergency services, employees from the Danish Chamber of Commerce, including its CEO Brian Mikkelsen, and even passers-by were seen carrying large paintings away from the building in a race to save historic artifacts from the flames.
“We are saving everything we possibly can,” Jakob Vedsted Andersen, Copenhagen’s fire department chief, told reporters.
Denmark’s National Museum sent 25 employees to the scene to help evacuate cultural artifacts and paintings, it said on X.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, police said.
Construction a challenge for firefightersParts of the roof had collapsed and the fire spread to several floors of the building, Vedsted told reporters.
“It’s always sad to put out fires in old buildings,” he said.
Some 120 people were working to contain the fire but only around 40 per cent of it was under control, Vedsted said, adding that the firefighting operation would go on for at least 24 hours.
“Horrible pictures from the Boersen. So sad. An iconic building that means a lot to all of us … Our own Notre-Dame moment,” Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen wrote on X.
Flames engulfed the building’s spire, which eventually collapsed. (Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/Getty Images)The historic building, whose spire was shaped as the tails of four dragons intertwined, had been under renovation when the fire broke out. The spire also had three crowns at the top, symbolizing the great kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
“This spire is absolutely iconic and there is no other like it in the world,” Ulla Kjaer, senior researcher at the National Museum of Denmark, told Reuters.
People carry paintings out of the historic Boersen stock exchange building after it caught fire in central Copenhagen, on Tuesday. (Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP)The scaffolding around the building made it harder for the emergency services to get through to the flames, while the copper roof was preserving the heat, the Copenhagen fire department said.
The nearby Finance Ministry was evacuated as a result of the fire, the police said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze.
Firefighters work as fire and smoke rise out of the Old Stock Exchange, on Tuesday in Copenhagen. The building, which is situated next to the Christiansborg Palace where the parliament sits, is a popular tourist attraction. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix/The Associated Press)Copenhagen police asked people to avoid driving in the inner part of the city.
The Danish Chamber of Commerce has worked on restoring it to the style of Denmark’s King Christian IV, who had the building constructed in the 17th century.
Smoke billows from massive fire at stock exchange in DenmarkAn onlooker captured images of flames and smoke in Copenhagen as the historic stock exchange burned.
