Denmark endures Notre-Dame fire moment and vows to rebuild
By Adrienne Murray
Alarm bells first rang out early on Tuesday morning as fire ripped through Copenhagen’s historic former stock exchange building, Børsen.
Within no time at all the inferno had gutted large parts of the 400-year-old structure and toppled the ornate spire known for its distinctive dragons.
Brian Mikkelsen, who heads the Danish Chamber of Commerce which owns Børsen, has vowed that it will be rebuilt “no matter what”.
Comparisons have been drawn with France’s Notre-Dame cathedral, which was devastated by fire in 2019.
Danish officials now hope to find out what lessons can be learned from the cathedral’s swift restoration.
Mr Mikkelsen was cycling to his office when he first heard about the fire and arrived to find scores of firefighters tackling the blaze.
“I was biking in there. Then I saw the flames,” he said.
Together with colleagues and emergency workers, he ran into the burning building multiple times to rescue some of the hundreds of centuries-old artworks stored inside.
