{"id":954368,"date":"2026-11-06T05:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T05:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/954368\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T05:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T05:36:12","slug":"christmas-display-burns-down-at-canberras-westfield-belconnen-shopping-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/954368\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas display burns down at Canberra&#8217;s Westfield Belconnen shopping centre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">A Christmas display at a shopping centre in Canberra&#8217;s north has been cordoned off after a Christmas tree caught fire early this morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Just before 5am, emergency services were alerted to a blazing tree as part of the display at Westfield Belconnen.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Yellow caution tape blocking off a burned-out Christmas photo set in a mall.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/bc26655a44af6b47940e2ce84b1c9694.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">The cause of the fire has yet to be determined. (ABC News: Monte Bovill)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Christmas decorations, including elves, were damaged in the fire, but the large Christmas tree next to the display was untouched by the blaze.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">ACT Fire and Rescue crews said they cut down a tree in the display and extinguished the fire at the scene.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Christmas lights destroyed by fire on the floor of at burned out Santa photography set.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/cf5546243e520d4ae3f30a4a4f8a02d6.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Emergency services said the fire was not suspicious. (ABC News: Monte Bovill)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">There was no damage to the surrounding areas in the shopping centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Authorities have not confirmed the cause of the fire, but did say it was not suspicious.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">A Westfield Belconnen spokesperson said, &#8220;The incident was promptly attended to by authorities, with the support of our team&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;Santa&#8217;s arrival at Westfield Belconnen tomorrow will continue as planned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;The Santa Set will be temporarily unavailable during this time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;Some customers&#8217; Santa Photography bookings will be rescheduled, and those impacted will be contacted directly by our team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Yellow caution tape blocking off a burned-out Christmas photo set in a mall.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/75ade7f1cf67acfd48335ad7e68f7e48.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">There was no damage to surrounding areas of the shopping centre. (ABC News: Monte Bovill)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Christmas display at a shopping centre in Canberra&#8217;s north has been cordoned off after a Christmas tree&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":954369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2666,2667,5503,521945,521946,7770,521947,43,31401,2668,44,521944,7240,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-954368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-act","tag-canberra","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-display","tag-festivities","tag-fire","tag-fire-damage","tag-headlines","tag-holidays","tag-local-stories","tag-news","tag-santa-workshop","tag-shopping","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}