Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
A fire raged through one of Copenhagen's oldest buildings Tuesday, causing the collapse of the iconic spire of the 17th-century Old Stock Exchange as passersby rushed to help emergency services save priceless paintings and other valuables.
The blaze broke out on the building's copper roof during renovations, and police said it was too early to say what caused it. The building with its distinctive 56-metre (184-foot) spire in the shape of four intertwined dragon tails has been a major tourist attraction next to Denmark's parliament, Christiansborg Palace, in the heart of the capital.
Bells tolled and sirens sounded as fire engulfed the spire and sent it crashing onto the building, which was shrouded by scaffolding. Huge billows of smoke rose over downtown Copenhagen and could be seen from southern Sweden, which is separated from the Danish capital by a narrow waterway.
"A piece of Danish history is on fire," Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen wrote on Instagram, saying that it hurt to see the loss of such "irreplaceable cultural heritage."
Ambulances were at the scene but there were no reports of casualties.
Firefighters, who reportedly pumped water from a nearby canal, sprayed water through the doorway of the Old Stock Exchange's gilded hall that is used for gala dinners, conferences and other events and where many paintings were on display.
Danish Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said it was "touching" to see how many people lent their hand "to save art treasures and iconic images from the burning building." One man jumped off his bicycle on his way to work to help during an initial period before firefighters cleared people from the building.
Among the pieces that had been on display in the building was a huge painting completed in 1895 by Danish artist P.S. Krøyer called, “From Copenhagen Stock Exchange.” No information has been released about which works of art were saved from the blaze, although video footage appeared to show the Krøyer painting being removed.
Brian Mikkelsen, chief of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, which is headquartered in the Old Stock Exchange and owns the building, was seen with his staff scrolling through a binder of photos of paintings to be saved. Works were carried to the nearby parliament and national archive building. Rescuers used tools such as crowbars to remove valuables to save them from the fire, Mikkelsen said.
"We have been able to rescue a lot," a visibly moved Mikkelsen told reporters. "It is a national disaster."
Jakob Vedsted Andersen, a Greater Copenhagen Fire Department spokesman, said the fire began on the roof Tuesday morning and quickly spread, collapsing parts of the roof and destroying about half of the building. He said no other buildings were at risk but that it could take firefighters 24 hours to secure the scene.
Firefighters walk out of the main entrance as the Old Stock Exchange burns in Copenhagen, Denmark, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Tim Ole Simonsen, another spokesman for the Greater Copenhagen Fire Department, said "the fire started in the part of the building where work has been going on, but that's all I can say about it."
Rene Hansen of the coppersmith company that was renovating the roof told broadcaster TV2 it had 10 people on the roof when the fire alarm went off.
"After five minutes, smoke began to rise from the floor to the ceiling," Hansen said.
Tommy Laursen of the Copenhagen police said it was too early to say what caused the fire and that police would able to enter the building in "a few days."
Up to 90 members of an army unit were deployed from a nearby base to cordon off the area and "secure valuables," Denmark's armed forces said.
King Frederik wrote on Instagram that "an important part of our architectural heritage" was being destroyed. "This morning we woke up to a sad sight," he wrote.
The exchange was built in 1615 and considered a leading example of Dutch Renaissance style in Denmark. The Chamber of Commerce moved into the building after Copenhagen's stock exchange left in 1974.
The roof, masonry, sandstone and spire were being renovated, and Mikkelsen said there were plans to have the royal family, government officials and other dignitaries review the work later this year. "
That won't happen now," he said.
People ride bicycles as smoke rises from the Old Stock Exchange in Copenhagen, Denmark, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (Emil Nicolai Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
The future of the structure was unclear, but Engel-Schmidt, the culture minister, wrote on the social platform X that he would do everything he could "so that the dragon spire will once again tower over Copenhagen," describing it as "a symbol of Denmark's strong history as a trading nation."
The adjacent Christiansborg Palace has burned down several times, and in 1990 a fire broke out in an annex of the Danish parliament, known as Proviantgaarden but the Old Stock Exchange was unscathed.
Police closed a main road in Copenhagen and warned on X that the public should expect the area to be cordoned off for some time. Several bus lines were rerouted and Danish media reported huge traffic jams.
Queen Margrethe, who turned 84 Tuesday, toned down the celebrations because of the fire, broadcaster TV2 said. A band with the Royal Life Guard was to play for the former monarch outside the Fredensborg Castle, where she is staying for the spring and summer, but that was cancelled.
The fire in Copenhagen was reminiscent of a April 2019 blaze at Notre Dame. The 800-year-old cathedral in Paris also lost its spire. Its restoration is slated for completion this year. In November 1992, soldiers and workers scrambled to save priceless works of art when Windsor Castle in England was consumed in flames. That fire destroyed the state dining room and other parts of Queen Elizabeth II's weekend home.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
After a lengthy series of instructions from Justice Dan Cornell, a Sudbury jury is deliberating whether to find a suspect guilty of three counts of manslaughter or three counts of murder.
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
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.