Fire prompts evacuations at UN climate talks in Brazil, 13 people suffer smoke inhalation

BELEM, Brazil — A fire briefly spread through pavilions being used for U.N. climate talks in Brazil and prompted evacuations Thursday on the next-to-last day of the conference, and officials said 13 people were treated for smoke inhalation. Organizers said the fire was controlled in about six minutes. Fire officials ordered the evacuation of the entire site for the conference, known as COP30, and the venue remained closed for about seven hours following the fire. Attendees trickled back into the COP30 venue after it reopened. Some posed for pictures in the nighttime glow of the signage at the entrance. Others returned to rooms further from the pavilions to resume negotiations or to retrieve belongings that had been left behind. Security staff were stationed behind metal barricades to keep people out of the pavilions and a curtain veiled off the area that the blaze had destroyed. 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 climate talks.

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