Copenhagen is battling a fire that destroyed a 400-year-old monument

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Danish firefighters are still putting out the last pockets of a blaze that destroyed a 400-year-old Copenhagen landmark a day after it started.

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“It's sad, very sad,” said Mikkel Jensen, a 44-year-old civil servant, gazing at twisted poles still clinging to the ruins of the city's old stock exchange.

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Dating back to 1615 and called Boersen in Danish, the building is notable for its green copper roof and distinctive 56-meter (184 ft) spire in the form of four joined dragon tails. Morten Langager, manager of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, which is headquartered in the Old Stock Exchange and owns the building, said it needed to “re-emerge”.

His boss, House Speaker Brian Mikkelsen, said Tuesday that “no matter what, we're going to reinstate Boersen,” and the board supported the idea.

A decision has not yet been made as to who will restore this multi-million, if not billion-krona (dollar) building. A conservative estimate is that this could take up to 10 years.

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Many in Denmark compared Tuesday's fire to the April 2019 blaze at Notre Dame, which destroyed the roof of the 800-year-old cathedral. Its restoration is planned to be completed this year.

The extent of the damage caused by the fire and the tons of water poured to extinguish it is not yet known.

“A lot was lost in the fire,” said Tim Ole Simonsen of the Greater Copenhagen Fire Department. “The stability of the outer walls is threatened by the loss of the timber structure that supports them.”

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Up to 40 shipping containers filled with concrete will be installed to stabilize the remaining exterior walls, the fire department said.

Police have not yet been able to enter the building to begin investigating the cause of the fire, said Copenhagen police officer Brian Belling, who is in charge of the investigation. The fire is believed to have started in the roof during renovations on Tuesday morning.

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“It can take a long time to find the cause of the fire,” Belling said.

As the fire engulfed the building on Tuesday, passers-by, Chamber of Commerce officials, police officers and members of an army unit dispatched to help rushed to save the building's treasures.

Mikkelsen, who was one of the employees on the run, told public broadcaster DR that the building had planned what could be saved “in the worst case”. When it was too dangerous for people to climb to the first floor, firefighters with breathing apparatus were sent in to retrieve the priceless items, he said, adding that the building's most valuable contents, including priceless paintings and other works of art, had been saved.

The Chamber of Commerce said among the items preserved was a large painting by Danish artist PS Kroyer, “From the Copenhagen Stock Exchange,” completed in 1895.

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An hour after the initial reports, the fire quickly engulfed the spire, sending it into the wooded building and onto the street behind it.

A plume of smoke billowed from downtown Copenhagen and could be seen from southern Sweden, which is separated from the Danish capital by a narrow waterway. Emergency vehicles were at the scene, but no injuries were reported.

Smoke damage closed the ministries, located on the street behind the Old Stock Exchange, which were closed on Wednesday as staff were told to work from home due to the strong smell of smoke in the buildings. Before ministry staff can return, the buildings must be thoroughly cleaned and their ventilation systems checked and replaced, said Rasmus Brandt Lassen, head of Denmark's building and property agency.

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“We told them to wait to work at home for the rest of the week,” said Brandt Lassen,

The Exchange is considered a leading example of the Dutch Renaissance style in Denmark. After the departure of the Copenhagen Stock Exchange in 1974, the Chamber of Commerce moved into the building.

Its dragon spire was one of many churches and castles in the city that earned Copenhagen the nickname “the city of spiers”. Other copper-clad bell towers include the serpentine spiers of the Church of Our Saviour, the tower of the Renaissance Rosenborg Palace in the center of the city, and the Kristiansborg Palace, home to the Danish Parliament.

The main road past the Old Stock Exchange remained closed on Wednesday.

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