Even 24-hour security was not enough to stand in the way of the Christmas goat getting destroyed – in this case, of largely its own making.
Perhaps fearing fire-wielding Icelanders or the country’s notorious gusts of wind – both of which have felled it before – Vísir reports that IKEA’s Christmas goat burst into flames just hours ago.
“I am just so upset over this,” Þórarinn Ævarsson, the managing director of IKEA in Iceland, told reporters. “It burned up just like that. It seems to me that it committed suicide. Now is the time to mourn.”
Jólin eru að koma ??? #ikea pic.twitter.com/i2iqdtbPvz
— Guðjón Baldvinsson (@Gauib) October 26, 2015
As reported, the goat was this year under 24-hour CCTV and surrounded by an electrical fence to prevent would-be firebugs from taking a chance at setting the giant straw goat on fire. Ultimately, though, the goat burst into flames on account of a faulty string light (which did not, incidentally, come from IKEA).
The Christmas Goat, also known as the Gävle Goat in its native Sweden, has not had the best run here in Iceland. In both 2010 and 2012, vandals set fire to the goat. In 2011 and 2013, unusually high winds tore down the Gävle Goat, whose thin metal frame was unable to stand up against Iceland’s trademark gusts.
Þórarinn says plans are in the works to raise another Christmas goat before the weekend.
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