The fire, declared Monday evening on the site of the future Kanal-Centre Pompidou in Brussels, was completely extinguished around 9 p.m. by the mobilized firefighters. The causes of the incident are still to be determined. The flames appeared around 6 p.m. in a technical room located under the roof of an emergence of the Citroën building, under construction since 2019 to accommodate the future museum of modern and contemporary art, near Place Sainctelette. If the extent of the damage is currently uncertain, the spokesperson for the Brussels fire brigade Walter Derieuw confirmed that the incident had not caused any injuries, and that no work was present on the site.
As for the material consequences, the resigned director of Kanal, Yves Goldstein, believes that “the damage would be limited to technical equipment” and that they should not postpone the inauguration date, scheduled for November 28, 2026. The former Citroën garage, the main building of the museum currently being converted, was not directly affected.
Kanal fire in Brussels, July 6, 2020.
© Brussels Fire Brigade
The incident, although limited, adds to the list of disappointments which punctuated the project bringing together the Kanal Foundation, the CIVA Foundation and the Center-Pompidou. The project was carried out by the former minister-president of the Brussels-Capital region Rudi Vervoort in 2013 and entrusted to his former chief of staff Yves Goldstein in 2017. If the latter had justified his resignation, last May, as the result of a simple reorganization of the management teams, it came after a long period of uncertainty. The opening of the site, originally planned for 2023, had been postponed due to financial difficulties, against a backdrop of political instability.
Under construction since 2019, the project has accumulated significant delays, which have caused construction costs to soar to 230 million euros, compared to an initial estimate of 150 million. In February 2026, the new Brussels government, appointed after a period of 600 days without executive power, released the sums necessary to continue the project despite the numerous criticisms leveled against it in the cultural field. In May, a new loan of 60 million euros from the Region was granted to the museum to complete the work, the financing of which depends mainly on public funds. But doubts persist as to the annual operating subsidies that could be allocated to it.
If the current management contract provides for 28 million euros per year for the museum until 2028, a member of the Flemish liberal party Anders announced last February, on a television set, the establishment of a cap of 10 million euros from 2029. A statement that the press manager of the Kanal Foundation, David Salomonowicz, had described as “political speculation”.
