He fire in the emblematic building of the old Copenhagen Stock Exchange, inaugurated on Tuesday morning, is «under control»The emergency services reported this in the afternoon. “We are in the midst of post-extinction work,” emergency services director Jakob Vedsted Andersen told reporters.
When the fire, the causes of which are not yet known, was declared at 7:30 local time (5:30 GMT), ten workers from the company that is restoring the building – under construction from 2022 – were inside inside and left alone and unharmed, Danish media reported.
The fire affected half of the building. «We continue to fight the flames. New complications have arisen. As the internal support structures burned, the walls were destabilized. This is what we are focusing on now,» the director of Copenhagen’s emergency services said. Jakob Vedsted Andersen.
Andersen stressed that the building is surrounded by scaffolding and that it cannot be ruled out that the building collapsed. The emblematic spire of its 54 meter high tower collapsed in flames.
The fire broke out under the roof, which has copper elements and is difficult to access, and this allowed the flames to gain intensity and spread to the rest of the building’s floors.
The building, one of the oldest surviving in Copenhagen, was built between 1619 and 1623 by order of King Christian IV and functioned as the Danish capital’s stock exchange until 1974.
It was currently the headquarters of Chamber of Commerce and its facade and roof were undergoing restoration, a process that was expected to be completed in 2029.
«This morning we woke up to a sad image, when the smoke on the roofs of Copenhagen reflected the destructive fire of the stock market,» King Frederick their work to prevent the crisis. they would be injuries.
Several wings of Christiansborg Castle, the seat of Parliament, which is located near the burning building, were evacuated as a precaution.
The Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, He described the fire as «horrific» and regretted that «a piece of Danish history was burning», while the Defense Minister, Troels Lund Poulsenhe called the event «our Notre Dame moment,» alluding to the fire at the famous Paris cathedral in 2019.
According to experts cited by the media, it is possible that the restoration work increased the risk of fire, although it is not yet known what caused the fire.
At the end of the 19th century the building had a copper roof, which is the one currently preserved.
The four intertwined dragon tails of the spire were surmounted by three crowns, symbolizing the Scandinavian empire composed of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
According to ancient legends, the dragon protected the building from enemy attacks and fires and, as the guide tells us, the building has mysteriously survived to this day and on several occasions from damage caused by fires that broke out in nearby buildings.
Christiansborg Palace (now the Danish Parliament) has been destroyed several times and as recently as 1990, a fire broke out in nearby Proviantgaarden on Slotsholmsgade (Slotholm Street). Also on this occasion, as previously, the Old Stock Exchange emerged unscathed.
Currently the Old Stock Exchange is used for gala dinners, conferences, parties and other events and is not open to the public.
