The UN climate summit COP30 was evacuated in Belém, Brazil, after a fire broke out inside the venue, sending flames and smoke through the conference area and forcing negotiators, delegates and staff to move outside.
BBC News reported that the blaze began in the pavilion area of the venue and that journalists saw flames before fire engines rushed in. The UN later said the fire was extinguished after six minutes, but 13 people were treated for smoke inhalation. The talks were still in the final hours of efforts to agree on next steps for climate action when the fire disrupted proceedings.
The immediate consequence was operational as much as physical. The venue was closed, the summit was temporarily taken over by Brazilian authorities and the negotiations were interrupted at a moment when countries were trying to close out the conference. BBC Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt described seeing large columns of smoke and security guards telling people to leave. The report says hundreds of people were left outside in heat and humidity after the evacuation.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known. One eyewitness told the BBC they believed it may have been electrical, but that was not confirmed. The report says orange flames burned a hole through the sheeting that covered the venue and that emergency teams later moved through the site to assess safety. A Brazilian security officer locked the premises after the evacuation.
The BBC also reported first-hand testimony from people near the fire, including Dr Harshita Umesh, who said the flames climbed the walls and onto the ceiling, and that people were screaming. Emergency medicine specialist Kimberly Humphrey told the BBC that the injuries appeared to be mainly smoke inhalation, with one person suffering a lung injury from smoke. The report says first responders also inhaled toxic fumes and were given oxygen masks.
The fire matters because COP30 was already in a sensitive stage. The summit was nearing its closing moments and governments were attempting to agree on next steps to tackle climate change. Any disruption at that point can affect timetables, drafting, side meetings and final decisions. The BBC says the fire is likely to delay the closing of a deal.
The venue itself was described as a former aerodrome, and the scene after the fire was chaotic enough that some delegates had to shelter beneath the roof of a petrol station. Even after the flames were contained, the summit area remained closed while safety checks continued. The report says the UN fire brigade was assessing the venue to determine whether it could reopen.
COP meetings are typically carefully choreographed and heavily secured, so a sudden fire at the center of the conference is a major disruption by itself. In this case it also happened during the most politically sensitive phase of the talks, when nearly 200 countries were trying to reach consensus on climate action. The evacuation turned a negotiation deadline into an emergency response.
For the delegates who had been working toward a deal, the fire added uncertainty at exactly the wrong time. For the emergency teams, the response was rapid enough to avoid a greater disaster, but the disruption was still enough to force a halt to one of the world’s largest climate negotiations.
