LAST UPDATE | 16 Apr
ONE OF COPENHAGEN’S oldest buildings is on fire and its famous spire has collapsed.
The fire was first reported at 7.30am and began in the copper roof of the 17th-century Old Stock Exchange, or Boersen.
It has now spread to much of the building, and parts of the roof have also collapsed, firefighters’ spokesman Jakob Vedsted Andersen said.
“The extinguishing work is very difficult,” said Vedsted Andersen, adding that there are parts of the building that the firefighters cannot enter because it is too dangerous.
Danish rescue services said that they could not give “any guarantees” that the facade of the building could be saved.
“The facades are still standing, but they are starting to give way as the construction burns away,” Andersen told reporters.
“We are trying everything we can to protect the facades, but we cannot give any guarantees,” he added.
The building, that was once Denmark’s financial centre and is situated next to the Christiansborg Palace where the parliament sits, is a popular tourist attraction.
Its distinctive spire, in the shape of the tails of four dragons entwined together, reached a height of 56 metres.
The Borsen building, close to the Christiansborg parliament and seat of government, was commissioned by King Christian IV and built between 1619 and 1640. It is one of Copenhagen’s oldest and best known landmarks.
Housing a vast art collection, it was being renovated to celebrate its 400th anniversary.
Huge billows of smoke rose over downtown Copenhagen this morning and people were seen rushing inside the building to save paintings.
Danish media reported that an annex of the parliament was being evacuated.
Police and firefighters have been at work outside the building, which was encased in scaffolding. Ambulances attended the scene but there were no reports of casualties.
Members of an army unit were seen being deployed to cordon off the area, and the Danish Emergency Management Agency was also helping.
Danish culture minister Jakon Engel-Schmidt said it was “touching” to see how passers-by helped emergency services “to save art treasures and iconic images from the burning building”.
The chamber’s head, Brian Mikkelsen, was among those helping to carry paintings out of the building.
“It is a national disaster,” Mikkelsen said.
The most valuable paintings in the building were quickly moved to the nearby National Museum of Denmark.
King Frederik wrote on Instagram that “they woke up to a sad sight” of “an important part of our architectural heritage” being destroyed by the flames.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen wrote that “irreplaceable cultural heritage” and “a piece of Danish history is on fire”.
“It hurts to see,” Frederiksen wrote on Instagram.
Speaking outside the burning building, Copenhagen mayor Sophie Haestorp Andersen said the city and the Danish Chamber of Commerce had already decided to try and restore the building, however the details, including funding, would have to be decided.
“This is part of the story of the building of our city, a story that we can’t just leave in a sea of flames, and therefore we will do everything we can to rebuild this,” she told reporters.
Echoing the sentiment, Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said he would “do everything I can so that the spire will once again tower over Copenhagen”.
The adjacent Christiansborg Palace has burned down on several occasions, and most recently in 1990 a fire broke out in an annex of the Danish parliament, known as Proviantgaarden. However, the Old Stock Exchange survived unscathed.
That annex, which lies in the block behind the Old Stock Exchange, was evacuated as a precaution, as were different ministries in the street behind the burning building.
Beside housing the Chamber of Commerce, the Old Stock Exchange is used for gala dinners, conferences, parties and other events.
Police said on the social media site X, formerly Twitter, that a main road in Copenhagen was closed and people should expect the area to be cordoned off for some time.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
Includes reporting by David MacRedmond, Press Association and © AFP 2024
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say