Fire & ice: blaze breaks out in Quebec City's ice hotel

2018-01-16T13:59:00-05:00

After a seemingly perfect start to the season, with temperatures well below the freezing point, Quebec City's ice hotel was hit by one of its fiercest opponents: fire. A small blaze broke out in one of the hotel's 45 guest rooms early Tuesday morning, forcing the evacuation of the structure, made completely out of ice, at the Village Vacances Valcartier winter park. "When I received the phone call they had to repeat twice that there was a fire in the ice hotel," said manager Jacques Desbois.

The fire was quickly extinguished and nobody was injured, however hotel operations had to be halted for a few days to remove smoke damage throughout the structure and buff up the snow and ice walls.

CBC News reports that this was the first fire incident in the 17-season history of the Quebec City Hôtel de Glace.

The fire allegedly started when a candle in one of the guest rooms like these fell on a sleeping bag.

All images via Hôtel de Glace on Facebook

Best snow + ice architecture, 2016 edition

2016-01-27T14:35:00-05:00

In China each year, the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival features both buildings and sculptures constructed entirely of ice and snow, which are augmented with nighttime illumination. Here are a few highlights from this year's festival:

China doesn't have a lockdown on spectacular ice and snow architecture. The Pyotr Yeropkin-designed 20 meter tall by 50 meter wide Russian Ice Palace, which has been reconstructed every year since 2005 (although the design dates back to 1740) in St. Petersburg, has interior spaces with custom ice furniture:

Quebec's Hotel de Glace offers a functional, if chilly, opportunity to experience ice and snow architecture. Each year, guests can stay inside one of its 44 rooms (some of which come with seemingly oxymoronic amenities, like a fireplace):

Lastly, there is the SnowCastle of Kemi by the Gulf of Bothnia in Finland, which is constructed annually and features an accompanying SnowRestaurant, SnowChapel, and SnowHotel. The SnowCastle's official website ...

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Fire & ice: blaze breaks out in Quebec City's ice hotel

Best snow + ice architecture, 2016 edition