BREAKING Speaker kicks Poilievre out of Commons over unparliamentary comments
Speaker Greg Fergus kicked Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre out of the House of Commons during question period today.
Danish firefighters toiled Wednesday to extinguish the last pockets of a fire that gutted Copenhagen's 400-year-old stock exchange building the previous day, as owners of the structure looked ahead to rebuilding the iconic landmark.
Tuesday's blaze, which destroyed half of the building and toppled its dragon-tail spire, was believed to have started on the roof during renovations, but the cause remained unclear and police had yet to enter the burned part of the building to investigate.
No injuries were reported despite a hectic scramble in the first hour of the fire to remove valuables, with citizen volunteers helping officials and firefighters in an effort that managed to salvage much of the building's priceless artwork.
"This is sad, so sad," 44-year-old civil servant Mikkel Jensen said Wednesday as he looked up at twisted scaffolding still clinging to the ruins of the Old Stock Exchange.
The building, which dates from 1615 and is named the Boersen in Danish, is known for its green copper roof and distinctive 56-metre (184-foot) spire in the shape of four intertwined dragon tails.
Morten Langager, manager of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, which was headquartered in the Old Stock Exchange and owned the building, said it should "rise again." His boss, chamber head Brian Mikkelsen, said the building will be rebuilt "no matter what" and that the board backed the idea.
The building was undergoing extensive renovations, and there are detailed records of the entire structure's architecture, including photographs taken just last week of the dragon spire by the National Museum in Copenhagen.
However, no decision has yet been made about who will reconstruct the building, a project which would cost millions, if not billions of kroner (dollars). A cautious estimate said it could take up to 10 years.
Many in Denmark compared Tuesday's fire to the April 2019 blaze at Notre Dame that destroyed the spire of the 800-year-old cathedral. Its restoration is slated for completion this year.
The extent of the damage, caused by flames and the tons of water poured to extinguish them, was still unknown.
"A lot has disappeared in the fire," said Tim Ole Simonsen of the Greater Copenhagen Fire Department, which was working to secure remaining outer walls. Up to 40 shipping containers, filled with concrete, will be put around them to stabilize them, the fire department said.
A firefighter examines the damage on the second floor of the Stock Exchange in Copenhagen, Denmark, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. (Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
That work will continue through the night. "The work is extensive and requires a large amount of equipment," the fire department said in a statement.
Police hadn't yet been able to enter the burned part of the building to begin investigating the cause of the fire, said Brian Belling, a Copenhagen police officer in charge of the investigation.
"It can take a long time to find the cause of a fire," Belling said.
When the fire engulfed the building on Tuesday, passers-by, Chamber of Commerce staff, police officers and members of an army unit that had been sent to help raced inside the building to save its treasures.
Mikkelsen, who was one of the employees who ran in, told public broadcaster DR that the building had made a plan for what to save in a "worst case" scenario. When it became too dangerous for people to go up to the first floor, firefighters with breathing gear were sent in to retrieve priceless items, he said, adding that many of the building's most valuable contents, which included irreplaceable paintings and other works of art, had been saved.
Among items saved was the huge 1895 painting "From Copenhagen Stock Exchange" by Danish artist P.S. Krøyer, the Chamber of Commerce said.
About an hour after the first reports of the fire on Tuesday, the blaze engulfed the spire and sent it crashing onto the building, which was shrouded by scaffolding, and onto the street behind.
The fire sent huge billows of smoke over downtown Copenhagen, and many government offices located nearby remained closed Wednesday because of a strong smell of smoke in the buildings. Employees were told to work from home.
The buildings must be cleaned and their ventilation checked before government ministry staff can return, said Rasmus Brandt Lassen, head of the Danish Building and Property Agency.
"We have told them that they should expect to work at home for the rest of the week," Brandt Lassen said.
The exchange is considered a leading example of the Dutch Renaissance style in Denmark. The Chamber of Commerce moved into the building after Copenhagen's stock exchange left in 1974.
Its dragon spire was one of the many of topping the city's churches and castles, which have earned Copenhagen its nickname as "the city of spires." Other copper-covered belfries include the serpentine spire of Our Savior's Church, those of the Renaissance Rosenborg Castle downtown, and the tower of the Christiansborg Palace which houses the Danish parliament.
A main road running past the Old Stock Exchange remained closed Wednesday.
Speaker Greg Fergus kicked Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre out of the House of Commons during question period today.
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Air Canada has paused a new seat selection fee for travellers booked on the lowest fares just days after implementing it.
McGill University says it has 'requested police assistance' about the pro-Palestinian encampment on its lower field.
Donald Trump was held in contempt of court Tuesday and fined US$9,000 for repeatedly violating a gag order that barred him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to his New York hush money case. And if he does it again, the judge warned, he could be jailed.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a former Milwaukee police officer was properly fired for posting racist memes related to the arrest of an NBA player that triggered a public outcry.
A driver who witnessed a wrong-way police pursuit on Highway 401 moments before a fatal crash said he was hoping the chase would have been called off before lives were lost.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.