A huge fire has erupted at the Cop30 venue, leaving 13 people suffering from smoke inhalation and forcing evacuations of several buildings.
The blaze disrupted UN climate talks in Brazil at a critical time, with just two scheduled days left and negotiators yet to announce any major agreements.
The fire spread through pavilions being used for the conference in Belem on Thursday, with videos showing emergency crews battling huge flames, and an eyewitness describing seeing billowing black smoke.
The local fire department said the cause of the blaze is being investigated, but suggested it was likely sparked by electrical equipment, such as a microwave.
āEarlier today, a fire broke out in the Blue Zone of the COP30 venue in Belem. The fire department and UN security officers responded swiftly, and the fire was controlled in approximately six minutes. People were evacuated safely,ā organisers said in a statement on Thursday evening.
āThirteen individuals were treated on site for smoke inhalation. Their condition is being monitored, and appropriate medical support has been provided.ā
Organisers soon announced that the blaze was under control, but fire officials ordered the entire site evacuated for safety checks, and it was not clear when conference business would resume, with the venue remaining closed until 8pm local time (11pm UK time).
Brazil’s Tourism Minister Celso Sabino told journalists at the scene that the fire started near the China Pavilion, which was among several pavilions set up for events on the sidelines of the annual talks. The blaze quickly spread to neighbouring pavilions, said Samuel Rubin, one of the people in charge of an entertainment and culture pavilion. He said nearby pavilions include many of the Africa pavilions and one aimed at youth.
Para state Gov. Helder Barbalho told local news outlet G1 that a generator failure or a short circuit in a booth may have started the fire.
Much of the summit venue in Belem was still under construction right up until the conference opened, with exposed beams, open plywood floors and metal meshed-in corridors leading nowhere outside the convention centre. During a pre-summit event, drilling and jackhammering could be heard as world leaders delivered speeches and scores of workers in hard hats scurried around unfinished pavilions shrouded in plastic.
Gabi Andrade, a volunteer with Cop30 from Belem, said she has been working on accreditations at the conference for the last three weeks. She said she had just got off her lunch break for her first free afternoon and was exploring the Singapore pavilion when the fire broke out.
She described seeing black smoke, before a security guard grabbed her hand and showed her to the exit as she cried and screamed āfireā.
Beneath the shock of the situation, she worried about what this would mean for Brazilās reputation, hosting the talks. “It’s so sad for us,” she said. “We all worked so hard.”
Viliami Vainga Tone, with the Tonga delegation, said he had just come out of a high-level ministerial meeting when dozens of people came thundering past him shouting about the fire.
He was among a crowd pushed out of the venue by Brazilian and UN security forces.
Mr Tone called time the most precious resource at Cop and said he was disappointed it is even shorter because of the fire.
“We have to keep up our optimism. There is always tomorrow, if not the remainder of today. But at least we have a full day tomorrow,” Mr Tone told The Associated Press.
A few hours before the fire, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres urged countries to compromise and “show willingness and flexibility to deliver results”, even if they fall short of the strongest measures some nations want.
“We are down to the wire and the world is watching Belem,” Mr Guterres said, asking negotiators to engage in good faith in the last two scheduled days of talks, which already missed a self-imposed deadline Wednesday for progress on a few key issues.
The conference frequently runs longer than its scheduled two weeks.
“Communities on the front lines are watching, too ā counting flooded homes, failed harvests, lost livelihoods ā and asking, ‘How much more must we suffer?”‘ Mr Guterres said. “They’ve heard enough excuses and demand results.”
