{"id":599496,"date":"2026-04-22T11:49:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/599496\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T11:49:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:49:29","slug":"toronto-fire-hoses-down-massive-ice-blocks-promoting-drake-album-citing-public-safety-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/599496\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Fire hoses down massive ice blocks promoting Drake album, citing public safety concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 2 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>Toronto Fire crews are hosing down and trying to melt a massive formation of ice blocks installed by Drake to promote his upcoming album. <\/p>\n<p>It comes after<a href=\"http:\/\/cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/toronto\/iceman-release-date-drake-ice-pile-9.7171479\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> some Torontonians took extreme measures<\/a>, such as starting fires atop the ice or using pickaxes to break it apart, in an attempt to discover the release date of the rapper&#8217;s long-awaited &#8220;Iceman&#8221; album. <\/p>\n<p>In the interest of public safety, Fire Chief Jim Jessop issued a statement Tuesday evening that he was initiating measures under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act due to &#8220;dangerous and unsafe activities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As Toronto\u2019s Fire Chief, my top priority is keeping Torontonians safe,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Large numbers of individuals [had] gathered to attempt to melt the ice using flammable liquids, and open flames in an uncontrolled environment which results in an immediate threat to life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A Toronto Fire unit responded to requests by police around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and assessed the best way to bring the structure down, Capt. Alex Vashkevich told CBC News Wednesday morning. <\/p>\n<p>An aerial firetruck was deployed at 2:51 a.m. Wednesday to melt the ice and is still at the scene spraying the blocks with warm water, he said. <\/p>\n<p>The structure, which was 16 blocks high on Tuesday, remains very much intact with one side slowly melting as crews continue to douse it with water Wednesday morning. <\/p>\n<p>WATCH | Torontonians gathered around Drake&#8217;s ice block installation:<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776823992_29_default.jpg\"  alt=\"\" class=\"thumbnail\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"video-item-title\">Drake\u2019s ice block stunt creates fan chaos in downtown Toronto<\/p>\n<p>Toronto police were called to manage chaotic crowds at Drake\u2019s latest publicity stunt, a large pile of ice blocks in downtown Toronto that held the release date of his next album.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the rapper took to Instagram to share images of the glacial installation along with coordinates to its location and the caption: &#8220;Release date inside.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A streamer who goes by Kishka appeared to have found a blue folder hidden within one of the ice blocks Tuesday afternoon, revealing the album is set to drop on May 15.  Drake confirmed the date <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DXaUVHljvMe\/?hl=en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on his social media<\/a> Tuesday evening. <\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-599496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}