{"id":412035,"date":"2026-04-22T16:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/412035\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T16:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:41:11","slug":"toronto-fire-crews-melting-drakes-ice-sculpture-for-safety-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/412035\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto fire crews melting Drake\u2019s ice sculpture for safety – Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toronto firefighters say they are working to melt down a 25-foot ice structure originally built to tease<\/a> the release date of Drake<\/a>\u2018s much-anticipated \u201cIceman\u201d album.<\/p>\n

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In a media release on Tuesday, Fire Chief Jim Jessop said the sculpture has continued to draw large groups of people trying to melt the ice using flammable liquids and open flames.<\/p>\n

Jessop said they\u2019ve since blocked off the area to ensure people\u2019s safety, and started hosing down the ice to melt it safely Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

By Wednesday morning, some of the structure had significantly shrunk though a fair amount of ice still remained.<\/p>\n

Jessop stressed open flames and flammable liquids in an uncontrolled environment cause an \u201cimmediate threat to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said during a news conference on Wednesday she supports the move by Jessop, saying it\u2019s to ensure people\u2019s safety. But she added that she recognizes the excitement around the album.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDrake is a big supporter of our city and there\u2019s so much excitement across our city towards this new album, the Iceman,\u201d Chow said. \u201cI\u2019m excited too, it\u2019s going to be a great summer \u2026 but please, be safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the allocation of police and fire, Chow said it is the city\u2019s responsibility to keep people safe and there are not plans to recoup the costs. However, she added she needs to check with police and fire.<\/p>\n

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The mayor said the ice sculpture surprised the city and said they would chat with Drake, given the use of resources, but appreciate the support he lends to Toronto.<\/p>\n

Coun. Brad Bradford, who is running for mayor in the fall election, said he\u2019d want to see the costs associated with the use of resources.<\/p>\n

But he said the positive \u201cbuzz\u201d Drake\u2019s actions did was a good thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Drake\u2019s made a lot of positive contributions to the city of Toronto,\u201d Bradford told reporters. \u201cI think this was actually kind of an interesting thing, got a lot of buzz and in a positive way about the city of Toronto and any time we can get Toronto out there in a positive way, a city that we can be proud of, I think that\u2019s a net positive benefit for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

A large amount of people began flocking to a parking lot at Dundas and Bond streets on Monday after Drake posted a map of the location on an Instagram story, teasing \u201crelease date inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

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By Monday evening, Toronto police were called for crowd control.<\/p>\n

According to police, it was reported people were on top of the structure and refusing to come down.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey were breaking off chunks of the ice with pickaxes and hammers and throwing them,\u201d Toronto police said in an email to Global News. \u201cA fire was also set atop the structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Large pieces of ice began falling, creating what police said was a dangerous situation for those both on the structure and the ground.<\/p>\n

Hours later on Tuesday, Twitch streamer Kishka was seen pulling a package from the ice containing the supposed release date of May 15.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDrake\u2019s album release date revealed after it\u2019s broken from ice sculpture\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

He also was seen receiving a FaceTime call before the reveal from Adin Ross, a friend of Drake\u2019s who told him to head to Drake\u2019s home. On his arrival, Kishka was welcomed inside the gates by Matte Babel, a member of Drake\u2019s management crew with the rapper also seen greeting Kishka from his window.<\/p>\n

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When he opened the bag, Kishka found a booklet and what looked like stacks of cash, an apparent gift for whoever found the hidden treasure.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first stunt for Drake\u2019s new album either, with his regular courtside seats at Scotiabank Arena having been sealed in sculpted ice earlier this month at a Toronto Raptors game.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto firefighters say they are working to melt down a 25-foot ice structure originally built to tease the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,289,308,928,93,61,60,180874,2278],"class_list":{"0":"post-412035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-drake","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-toronto-fire","19":"tag-trending"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}