"...and my gut reaction is surprise it lasted so long before inevitably burning up." The fire started in the building below it, and didn't have anything to do

"...and my gut reaction is surprise it lasted so long before inevitably burning up." The fire started in the building below it, and didn't have anything to do with the structure itself. By 1953 the tower hadn't been used for its original purpose for many decades, with the wires having been removed in favour of underground cables. The flags, however, were used for various informational purposes, such as indicating how many medals Sweden had received in international competitions for a particular day. (My main source is this clip, in Swedish: http://www.svd.se/nyheter/stockholm/mitt-stockholm/7695700_7695700.svd http://www.svd.se/nyheter/stockholm/mitt-stockholm/7695700_7...)