Flames at the historic Stock Exchange in Copenhagen have destroyed key parts of the iconic building. The fire is actually under control, but the fire department is still on duty.
Copenhagen - Shortly after the destructive fire in the historic stock exchange in Copenhagen, there is a tireless desire to rescue and there are still some unanswered questions.
On Wednesday morning, the fire department confirmed that extinguishing work was still underway in the burned half of the building and would take at least another full day. According to the fire department, the fire has been under control since Tuesday afternoon. This prevented it from jumping to the other half of the structure. However, important structures inside have been destroyed. Parts of the roof also collapsed.
One of the biggest challenges: preventing the building from collapsing completely. To do this, the emergency services placed numerous containers on the outside of the walls to support the structure as best as possible. The question of why the fire started still remains unanswered. The structure is scaffolded due to restoration work. It is still unclear whether the work had anything to do with the fire.
It is also still unclear how great the damage really is. The head of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, Brian Mikkelsen, reiterated that the building should definitely be rebuilt.
Many works of art rescued from burning building
The old stock exchange, which is now home to the Danish Chamber of Commerce, which also owns the building, houses, among other things, a large art collection. The building has not been used as a stock exchange in the true sense for a long time.
Numerous works of art were rescued from the burning building by firefighters and Chamber of Commerce employees, among others. At a press conference on Tuesday there was talk of “several hundred” artifacts. Including the famous painting “From the Copenhagen Stock Exchange” by the painter PS Krøyer.
On Wednesday it was said that it could be a long time before the extent of the damage could be quantified. Among other things, heavy sculptures and statues are still being recovered. Several works were also identified under the roof of the part of the stock exchange that was not burned out, a spokeswoman for the National Museum told the Danish news agency Ritzau. “If we don’t have any artifact lists, then you have to go in and reconstruct everything based on photos and other things.” Of course, that takes time.
More emergency protection for cultural assets in Germany is required
In Germany, in view of the fire in Copenhagen, there were calls for better support for the protection of cultural assets. “We have been trying to advance the issue at the federal level for many years,” said Almut Siegel from the German Press Agency’s portal for emergency associations for the protection of cultural property. In response to such disasters, emergency associations for the protection of cultural property have been founded nationwide.
According to Siegel, there are currently around 70 of these mergers. New ones are always being added. Museums, archives or libraries in a region have usually come together in these associations. They conduct training and exercises. Regarding the events in Copenhagen, Siegel said: “This is a great shock to everyone who is responsible for cultural property and it is a terrible moment to see that despite all efforts something like this can happen.”
Presented at the top of the crashed tower
The iconic top of the burning historic stock exchange in Copenhagen has already gone back to the Danish Chamber of Commerce. Mikkelsen, the head of the Chamber of Commerce, received it from an emergency worker on Wednesday morning. He himself called it “a little light in the darkness” on X (formerly Twitter). The piece of the so-called Drachenspitze had survived the fire and the deep fall.
The historic stock exchange is located on the eastern tip of the island of Slotsholmen. The building was completed in 1625 with a church tower. It was built by order of the then king in the Dutch Renaissance style to make Copenhagen a financial and commercial center. dpa