Something a little more fun to close out the weekend. When I think of nanny state orders and general government silliness, I tend to immediately conjure up images of New York, Chicago or San Francisco. But apparently this isn’t a phenomenon unique to the United States. Sweden gets their own share of it as well, it seems.

Sweden has a tourist attraction simply known as The Ice Hotel which gets constructed every winter in Jukkasjärvi, Kiruna. Built entirely out of blocks of ice by a collection of artists, it draws a lot of visitors who presumably don’t mind freezing their backsides off just for the fun of staying there. The pictures of it are pretty impressive. So how does this relate to the problem of nanny state regulations? Well, this year The Ice Hotel will be equipped with one additional feature.

Sweden’s Ice Hotel has been ordered by the National Housing Board to install fire alarms, despite being made completely out of frozen water.
The Ice Hotel, which is rebuilt every year in northern Sweden out of enormous chunks of ice from the Torne River in Jukkasjärvi, Kiruna, will this year come equipped with fire alarms – and the irony isn’t lost on the staff.

“We were a little surprised when we found out,” hotel spokeswoman Beatrice Karlsson told The Local.

“But we do understand. Safety is a primary concern for us. There are indeed things that can catch fire, like the reindeer skins, the mattresses, and the pillows.”

While it might sound crazy that a building made of water needs to be equipped with fire alarms, the fact that the hotel is built from scratch every year means it needs to abide by the rules that apply to every new building, rules set by the National Housing Board (Boverket).

There’s really not much left to add, I suppose. Except to say that if you built one in New York, they’d probably need the same equipment plus about 500 union sign-offs before you could erect it. Here’s a video of the project with a few of the artists who are carving it. Enjoy.