Photo: Ida Marie Odgaard Agence France-Presse The spire of the old Copenhagen Stock Exchange building, 54 meters high, collapsed in flames early Tuesday morning.
Camille Bas-Wohlert – Agence France-Presse in Copenhagen
2:05 p.m.
- Europe
Emergency personnel announced on Tuesday afternoon that they had brought the fire at the former Copenhagen Stock Exchange, dating from the 17th century, under control and which was largely ravaged by flames in the morning.
“A large part of the Exchange was damaged by fire. But a large part of the valuables have been recovered,” the director of rescue services, Jakob Vedsted Andersen, told the press, adding that around half of the building had burned.
“We are in the middle of post-extinguishment work,” he added, declaring around 4 p.m. that the fire was “under control.”
The emblematic spire of the building, 54 meters high, collapsed in the flames early in the morning in front of the stunned Danes. Firefighters had been trying since 7:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m. GMT) to save the structure of the building where renovation work was underway to celebrate the 400th anniversary of its opening.
The fire broke out for a still unknown reason under the roof, according to emergency services who dispatched around a hundred firefighters to the site, while the police are still blocking parts of the capital to traffic .
The police, who have not yet had access to the building and considered that it was “too early” to explain the reasons for the disaster.
A must-see building in Copenhagen, the Old Stock Exchange also houses a vast collection of works of art.
“Some historic buildings, almost entirely made of wood, are incredibly fragile, and I think it is difficult to protect 100%” against fires, an official at the national museum, Mads Damsbo, said earlier.< /p>
The fire caused no injuries and there is no risk of spread to other buildings.
Photo: Ida Marie Odgaard Agence France-Presse Around a hundred firefighters were dispatched to try to save the structure of the old Copenhagen Stock Exchange building.
“Our “Our Lady””
“We woke up to a sad sight,” Danish King Frederik
Her mother, Queen Margrethe, has canceled part of her 84th birthday celebrations which she is celebrating this Tuesday.
“It hurts the soul of the Danes, years of history are consumed in flames,” said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Danish public television.
A local resident, Elisabeth Moltke, 45, came to witness the disaster: “it’s our Notre-Dame, it’s our national treasure,” she confided, moved, to AFP .
Copper roof
Many trucks surround the building which now houses the Danish Chamber of Commerce, a stone's throw from Parliament and the government headquarters.
“It’s a copper roof, and it’s just impossible to get in,” the emergency services director had said earlier. “So the fire had plenty of time to intensify and spread throughout the building,” he explained.
“400 years of Danish cultural heritage in flames,” Danish Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt lamented on the social network X.
Forces of the Danish army participated in the rescue of the works.
“We have secured several hundred works of art by Børsen. Due to their high value, they were transported under police escort to the reserves of the National Museum of Denmark, where they will be examined, explained an official of the National Museum of Denmark, Camilla Jul Bastholm.
Reconstruction
“I don’t have the words. It’s a 400-year-old building that survived all the other fires that ravaged Copenhagen, it’s a terrible loss,” said resident Carsten Rose Lundberg.
Copenhagen Mayor Sophie Haestorp Andersen has already announced that together with the Chamber of Commerce they will “try to rebuild the building”.
The building is part of “the history of the construction of our city, a history that we cannot leave in a sea of flames, and that is why we will also do everything we “We can rebuild it here,” she added.
“Whatever happens, we will rebuild Børsen,” assured the general director of the chamber of commerce, Brian Mikkelsen.
In the morning, several people were filmed and photographed saving works, including a painting representing the building, according to images from Danish media outlet DR and photos from the Ritzau agency.
Commissioned by King Christian IV, the Copenhagen Stock Exchange was built between 1619 and 1640, constituting one of the oldest buildings in the city.