The ice storm that has been ravaging the city of Toronto for the past three days has now forced the Toronto Blue Jays game against the Kansas City Royals at the Rogers Centre to be cancelled due to falling ice from the CN Tower causing damage to the stadium’s roof.
“Tonight’s game has been cancelled due to inclement weather causing damage to our roof. We apologize to our fans for this inconvenience,” a tweet from the team said. The two teams will play a “traditional doubleheader” Tuesday with the first game set for 3:07 p.m.
Police said they had blocked off the area directly under the CN Tower and the baseball stadium due to the “relatively large” blocks of ice tumbling down onto the streets and sidewalks below. The CN Tower was also forced to close its doors.
“Fortunately, there’s been no injuries reported,” said Toronto Police Const. Allyson Douglas-Cook.
On Monday afternoon, the Blue Jays said they were working with the CN Tower and police to evaluate conditions around the stadium.
The team confirmed to Global News that damage was done to the roof of the dome. Video posted to Twitter around 4:30 p.m. showed two people working on the roof.
Authorities also said the pedestrian bridge at John Street is also off limits. The closure area was expanded by police just after 3 p.m. to include the sidewalk on the south side of Front Street, which is closed from John Street to Blue Jays Way.
LISTEN: Const. Allyson Douglas-Cook joins Kelly Cutrara on 640 Toronto
“We anticipate that this will probably continue for quite some time, so we’ll continue monitoring this and will update the public where the closures are,” Douglas-Cook said.
WATCH: Torontonians have been warned to avoid the area around the CN Tower as ice has been seen falling from the structure.
This is the third game cancellation in a row for the Blue Jays, who had games Saturday and Sunday against the Cleveland Indians cancelled at Progressive Field due to heavy rain.
The Blue Jays were forced to cancel another game against the Royals back on April 12, 2001, when the game was postponed after large pieces of metal siding and insulation began to fall onto the field. The incident happened before the game started and it was rescheduled at a later date that April.
It is extremely rare for the CN Tower to be forced to close. A spokesperson for the tower told Global News the last time the tourist attraction was closed was in August 2003, when the city was affected by the Northeast blackout.
—With files from Shallima Maharaj, David Shum and The Canadian Press
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