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A raging fire tore through the grounds of the UN climate summit COP30 in Brazil on Thursday, stalling talks as a full-scale evacuation was ordered, officials said.
Thirteen people were treated for smoke inhalation after the inferno broke out near the China pavilion before fanning outwards to other nearby sectors, Brazil’s Tourism Minister Celso Sabino told reporters at the scene.
Samuel Rubin, one of the people in charge of an entertainment and culture quadrant, said that other pavilions that were torched included many of the sections set aside for Africa and one for youth participants.
Organizers said that the blaze was under control within roughly six minutes.
Fire officials ordered the entire conference to be evacuated, and it’s unclear when the talks will continue.
Video captured by attendees showed a raging blaze shooting upwards while others nearby fled through thick plumes of smoke.
Para state Gov. Helder Barbalho told local news outlet G1 that a generator failure or a short circuit in a booth may have sparked the fire.
Gabi Andrade, a summit volunteer from its host city Belém, said that she worked tirelessly on accreditations at the conference over the last three weeks.
She finally had an afternoon to herself on Thursday and was exploring the Singapore pavilion when the fire started.
She said that she saw black smoke enveloping the grounds and, in the mayhem, a security guard grasped her hand and led her to an exit.
Andrade, though, is worried about how the chaos will reflect on Brazil as a first-time host of the climate conference.
“It’s so sad for us. We all worked so hard,” she said.
The climate summit started on Nov. 10 and is set to end on Friday.
Thousands of protesters promoting a variety of climate-related causes have held demonstrations in and around the conference since the first day.
On Nov. 11, dozens of demonstrators with different indigenous groups whose lands have been threatened by deforestation in Brazil forced their way into the summit venue and clashed with security guards who tried to barricade the entrance with tables and chairs.
The dozens that slipped inside broke away from a larger group of hundreds still chanting outside of the venue.
On Wednesday, the participating delegates failed to meet their self-imposed deadline to secure an agreement among the sum-odd 200 countries present on key issues like increasing climate finance and shifting away from reliance on fossil fuels.
The Trump administration did not send an official to the talks, but a band of 100 local leaders, ranging from local representatives to governors, made the journey as part of the US Climate Alliance.
The charred summit grounds were still under construction through the beginning of the conference. The venue itself was more of a maze than anything, filled with exposed beams, open plywood floors, and entire corridors leading to nowhere during pre-summit events.
Tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest land were paved over to construct a four-lane, eight-mile highway leading to the summit grounds.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva boasted that the event was “a COP in the Amazon, not a COP about the Amazon.”
With Post wires
English (US)