All flights out of Sydney Airport were grounded on Friday afternoon, local time, due to a fire in the control tower, according to Australian officials.

Service was suspended for nearly an hour — but eventually resumed — following a response from firefighters.

Smoke had been detected inside the control tower by workers around 11:40 a.m. (AEDT) and the building was quickly evacuated. Thousands of people were reportedly stranded as a result.

“There is a full ground stop in place with no aircraft departing or arriving,” the airport tweeted.

Firefighters gave the all clear about an hour later — but not before a slew of tweets came pouring in, describing the mayhem.

“It has suddenly gone VERY quiet at Sydney Airport,” tweeted Dr. Darren Saunders, a local cancer biologist and college professor. “Nothing in or out, diversions everywhere.”

One passenger wrote, “When you’re on the tarmac @SydneyAirport about to take off for holidays and the pilot announces a fire in the control tower, everyone’s been evacuated and airport in lockdown #badvariance.”

Airport staff told News.com.au that the blaze was small and discovered within minutes.

“The internal components of the battery pack system had started to smoke which created that nasty, electrical burning smell,” explained NSW Fire and Rescue Superintendent Bryce Jonas.

“Regardless of how important their job is of running the airport, human lives are much more important,” he said of the ground stoppage. “They did the right thing.”