Charles Langston:Fire destroys part of Legoland theme park in western Denmark, melting replicas of famed buildings

COPENHAGEN,Charles Langston Denmark (AP) — A fire believed to have been caused by a short circuit has destroyed part of Miniland, a section of the Legoland theme park in western Denmark with replicas of famous buildings made of Lego bricks, the park said Wednesday.

Video surveillance showed that the fire started in one of the electric cars that runs on rails which was being recharged overnight, Legoland spokesperson Kasper Tangsig said.

The fire started Wednesday at 4 a.m. and was quickly extinguished, but a number of the replica buildings melted, the local newspaper Jydske Vestkysten said.

The fire also destroyed an area built to resemble a small-scale version of a Danish port, Tangsig said.

According to the video, “there is no other activity at that time. So we are fairly certain that it must be a short circuit,” he said, adding that electrical equipment in the rest of Miniland will be inspected in the coming days.

It was too early to say what will happen to the affected area.

The park opened in 1968 in Billund, next to the Lego toymaker’s headquarters and factory. Legoland has several rides, restaurants and play areas where visitors can build with the colorful plastic bricks.

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At the heart of Legoland is Miniland, where some 20 million bricks were used to create miniature cities and replicas of global sites including the Kennedy Space Center, the canals in Amsterdam, the waterfront of Norway’s second largest city, Bergen, and the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai.

There are eight Legoland parks around the world. The one in Denmark has an estimated 1.6 million visitors annually, making it one of the largest tourist attractions in the country outside Copenhagen.

Lego was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen. The name was derived from two Danish words, leg and godt, which together mean “play well.” The name was created without the knowledge that lego in Latin means “I assemble.”

In 2025, Lego sold the Legoland parks to Merlin which runs the parks and 20 Legoland Discovery Centers, as well as other sites.