Fire rips through old Copenhagen bourse
• Scene is reminiscent of the 2019 blaze that ravaged the historic Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris
Fire ripped through Copenhagen’s Old Stock Exchange, one of the Danish capital’s landmark buildings, on Tuesday, engulfing its spire which collapsed in a scene reminiscent of the 2019 blaze at Paris’ NotreDame.
Parts of the roof had collapsed and the fire spread to several floors of the building, Copenhagen fire department chief Jakob Vedsted Andersen told reporters. The police said that there were no immediate reports of injuries. People were seen carrying large paintings away from the building to save the historic artefacts from the flames.
“Horrible pictures from the Bourse. 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.
Thick grey smoke rose above the city, and sirens were heard as emergency services were called to the site.
About 90 conscripts of the Royal Life Guards, an army unit, were helping to cordon off and secure valuables,said the armed forces. The historic building, which had a spire shaped as the tails of four dragons intertwined, had been under renovation and clad in scaffolding when the fire broke out.
The Dutch Renaissance style building no longer houses the Danish stock exchange, but serves as headquarters for the Danish Chamber of Commerce.
“We are now working hard to save our historical art from the Bourse,” the Chamber of Commerce wrote on X.
DRAGONS ON THE ROOF
The presence of dragons on the roof had been seen as symbolically protecting the exchange from enemies, as well as from fire, the chamber said on its website.
The scaffolding around the building made it harder for the emergency services to get through to the flames, while the copper roof was trapping the heat.
“We are saving everything we possibly can,” a spokesperson for the fire department told reporters.
The nearby finance ministry was evacuated as a result of the fire, the police said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze. Copenhagen police asked people to avoid driving in the inner part of the city.
The Danish Chamber of Commerce, which has owned the building since 1857, has worked on restoring it to the style of Denmark’s King Christian IV, who had the building erected during the 17th century.
Writing on Z, culure minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt wrote that 400 years of Danish cultural heritage had gone up flames.
“The building is filled with art that tells a lot about our history, about who we are as a people,” Engel-Schmidt told reporters.