Fire Breaks Out At Historic Panama Canal Lock

A small fire broke out Thursday in machines that operate the historic Miraflores Lock on the Panama Canal, which delayed the crossing of some ships but did not shut down interoceanic navigation.

The fire started in a tunnel where the machinery of the lock is housed, but the other locks continued working normally, said the Panama Canal Authority.

"A fire outbreak was recorded in one of the machinery tunnels in the upper chamber of the Miraflores locks," the Authority said in a statement.

"No injuries were reported. However, the transit of ships through this lock has been temporarily suspended as a security measure," it added.

The locks are huge concrete chambers that are filled with, then emptied of, millions of liters of water to raise or lower ships as they pass through the Canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Five percent of all global trade moves through the strategic waterway.

The Miraflores lock, more than a century old, is close to the Pacific and is visited daily by tourists from all over the world.