Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at the building housing the Danish Taxation Ministry, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Thursday June 27, 2024. A fire on Thursday broken out on top of a building housing Denmark’s Taxation Ministry in downtown Copenhagen, leading to the evacuation of the people inside the harbor-front glass-and-steel constrution and from adjacent houses. There was no word on casulaties.
Large flames and huge billows of black smoke rose from the six-story building and could be see across much of the Danish capital. Authorities say the blaze quickly came under control. “It was a serious situation, and therefore the emergency services called many forces to the scene,” said Tim Ole Simonsen, a spokesman for the Greater Copenhagen Fire Department.
On the social media platform X, the fire brigade wrote that it “had prepared for greater efforts, with water supply from the harbor etc. It was not relevant.”through the 400-year-old Old Stock Exchange downtown. The fire, which broke out on the roof during renovations, destroyed half the red-brick building and its distinctive 56-meter spire in the shape of four intertwined dragon tails. The cause has not yet been established.
Jens Kastvig, a fire expert with the Danish Society of Engineers, told Danish broadcaster TV2 that although fire brigades in Denmark have been busy recently, “it’s accidental, I hope.”