Head of Jamaica’s delegation to the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, Minister of Environment Matthew Samuda has reported all members of the Jamaican team safe following a fire at the main conference venue Thursday morning.

“The Jamaican delegation extends well wishes to the people injured during the unfortunate incident and also thank emergency workers who stepped in to curtail he fire and keep us safe,” Samuda told the Jamaica Observer from in Belém Thursday evening.

“We are awaiting communiqué from the presidency to resume negotiations. We expect to be back at work tonight (Thursday),” added Samuda.

The fire erupted in a pavilion of the UN climate talks forcing panicked delegates to run for the exits and interrupting negotiations.

UN and security crew rushed with extinguishers to put out the fierce blaze, which quickly tore a hole in the fabric roof of the COP30 summit site as smoke engulfed the corridor and people shouted “Fire!”

The fire was brought under control and no injuries were reported, Brazilian Tourism Minister Celso Sabino said. The cause was not immediately known but Sabino said it might have resulted from a short circuit or other electrical malfunction.

The UN body that oversees the COP talks said there had been “limited damage” but the site would reopen early Thursday night.

Firefighters arrived at the scene as smoke billowed inside and out of the conference, which is being held in a compound that includes a permanent structure and large tents in the city at the edge of the Amazon, with tens of thousands of people in attendance.

The fire started in a country pavilion inside the site’s ‘blue zone’, meaning under UN control, near the entrance of COP30. It took place as ministers were deep in negotiations aimed at breaking a deadlock over fossil fuels, climate finance, and trade measures, with one day left in the two-week conference.

“It will absolutely delay the process because this is like the crucial time, this is the time when we have to decide on the process that started last week,” Windyo Laksono, a member of the Indonesian delegation, told AFP.

“Some of us were still negotiating inside the room but due to the fire I think the process will stop for a while,” he said.

Nearly 200 countries have spent the past two weeks hashing out issues at COP30 — from a “roadmap” to transition away from fossil fuels proposed by host Brazil, to concerns over weak emissions-reduction plans, finance for developing countries, and trade barriers.

Earlier in the day, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged negotiators to reach an “ambitious compromise”.

“The world is watching Belém,” he told reporters during a morning news conference, as nations awaited a new draft-negotiating text before the summit officially closes on Friday evening.

Matthew Samuda, Jamaica’s minister of water, environment, and climate change addressing the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belem, Brazil on Monday.