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A mas­sive fire erupt­ed at the South Ter­mi­nal of the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port yes­ter­day morn­ing leav­ing hun­dreds of pas­sen­gers strand­ed, flights be­ing di­vert­ed and a fire of­fi­cer frac­tur­ing his leg while re­spond­ing to the blaze.

Of­fi­cials said the fire led to all air­port ac­tiv­i­ties com­ing to a com­plete stand­still, with at least four flights di­vert­ed to To­ba­go as the run­away was tem­porar­i­ly closed.

The Air­ports Au­thor­i­ty, in a state­ment, ex­plained that the fire be­gan around 5 am en­gulf­ing the Amer­i­jet In­ter­na­tion­al Air­lines ware­house at the South Ter­mi­nal com­pound and quick­ly es­ca­lat­ed, send­ing thick plumes of smoke bil­low­ing across the fa­cil­i­ty.