A fire broke out in the former stock exchange building on Tuesday morning. Clouds of dark smoke rose from the building. The facility was under renovation. It is one of the oldest monuments in the capital of Denmark.
The causes of the fire are not yet known. Reuters reports that local media showed valuable paintings being taken out of the building to protect them from burning. About 90 conscripts from the Royal Life Guard military unit secured the valuables inside the building.
Fire in Copenhagen. Difficult firefighting
The Old Stock Exchange building is located near the seat of the Danish Parliament on Slotsholmen Island in Copenhagen. It was built in the Dutch Renaissance style. It was formerly the seat of the Danish stock exchange. It currently serves as the headquarters of the Danish Chamber of Commerce.
Copenhagen police said scaffolding around the building made it difficult for emergency services to reach the flames and the copper roof retained heat.
Jakob Vedsted Andersen, the chief of Copenhagen’s fire brigade, told reporters gathered at the scene that part of the roof had collapsed and the fire had spread to several floors.
Police said the nearby Ministry of Finance was evacuated as a result of the fire.
After several hours of firefighting, the Danish rescue services said they might not give “any guarantees” that the façade of the 17th-century former stock exchange in Copenhagen might be saved. “The facades are still standing, but they are starting to weaken,” emergency services director Jakob Vedsted Andersen told reporters, quoted by Reuters.
Fire in Copenhagen. “A terrifying sight”
As a result of the fire, the building’s characteristic spire, which was 54 meters high, collapsed. The structure fell onto the street in front of the building. It was shaped like the intertwined tails of four dragons. The AFP agency reports that the building was commissioned by King Christian IV in 1619-1640.
“A terrifying sight this morning, 400 years of Danish cultural heritage in flames,” Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said on social media.
“Horrible photos. It’s so sad. An iconic building that means a lot to all of us… Our own Notre-Dame moment,” wrote Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen.
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