– We have a building that is very, very porous and at risk of collapsing, says Tommy Laursen, police inspector in Copenhagen at a press conference at lunchtime.
Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen compares the fire to the one that ravaged Notre-Dame in Paris exactly five years ago.
– Terrible pictures from Børsen. So sad. An iconic building that means a lot to all of us, I think. Our Notre-Dame moment, he says.
Cause unknown
It is not known what caused the nearly 400-year-old building in Copenhagen to start burning on Tuesday morning. The fire is still not under control, the fire service says.
– The construction has collapsed, so it is difficult to get into the building. Therefore, it takes a few hours before the fire is under control, says Jakob Vedsted Andersen of the fire and rescue service Hovedstadens Beredskap.
– It will take two or three days before we get an overview of the fire and its cause, continues Laursen.
Parts of the roof and the building’s spire have collapsed. Earlier, the fire service stated that around half the building was on fire.
– Painful to see
The emergency services in Copenhagen were notified of the fire at 7.30 on Tuesday morning. A little after 8 o’clock, the building’s spire was completely surrounded by smoke and heavy flames. At approximately 8:30 a.m., the spire toppled into the sea of flames.
– This morning we woke up to a sad sight, when smoke over Copenhagen bore witness to the devastating fire at the Stock Exchange. An important part of our architectural cultural heritage is in flames, says Denmark’s King Frederik in a statement.
He says he and the queen want to thank those who have ensured that no one has been injured in the fire, and who are working to save both the Stock Exchange and the cultural heritage inside the building.
– Terrible pictures we see now, says Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a comment to Ritzau.
– The Stock Exchange is one of Copenhagen’s most iconic buildings. Irreplaceable cultural heritage. It hurts to see, she continues.
Demanding
The extinguishing work is demanding, reports Hovedstadens Beredskap.
– It is an old building with many wooden structures and a copper roof that keeps the heat in. So it’s a very, very extensive effort that will last most of the day, Andersen tells several Danish media.
TV images also show that the historic painting “From the Copenhagen Stock Exchange” by PS Krøyer was carried out of the burning building.
The painting is one of the Skagen painter’s most famous works and is two and a half meters high and four meters wide. It was painted in 1895 and is a group portrait of a number of stock exchange people standing in the Stock Exchange Hall inside the burning building.
Restoration
The house was being restored, and scaffolding has been installed along the walls. The restoration was supposed to rectify an inappropriate renovation from the 19th century and bring the building’s facade back to its original expression, says the AP Møller Foundation’s website.
The characteristic, long brick building was in earlier times a commodity exchange and was completed with the high spire in 1625. It is used today as an office building. The house is one of Copenhagen’s oldest.
The spire, called the “Dragon Spire”, is what Børsen is best known for. It is designed as four dragon tails that twist around each other. The spire has three crowns on top which symbolized the great kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
– Terrible pictures from Børsen this morning. 400 years of Danish cultural heritage in flames, Denmark’s Minister of Culture Jakob Engel-Schmidt signs X/Twitter.
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2024-04-16 17:46:08