MIAMI --

Flight cancellations continued Friday at Miami International Airport, following a massive fire that broke out Wednesday night in a fuel storage area.

Friday morning, lines at the ticket counters appeared twice as long as they did Thursday.

The fire on Wednesday crippled the airport's underground fueling system, which had an impact on flight traffic at the airport.

"It's going to have an impact on the out-time performance of the aircraft. We are going to assess the situation to see how many of those pumps we can reopen. We have a total of six pumps, and they are all shut down right now," said Airport Director Jose Abreu.

As of 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, 90 departing flights and 89 arrivals had been canceled due to the fuel situation. Six arriving flights and 67 departures were delayed.

Dozens of other airlines have had to delay flights until the airport's backup fueling trucks can get to them. But with MIA as its international hub, American Airlines opted to cancel their flights rather than deal with a system-wide ripple effect that would delay so many of its planes.

The fire broke out at about 11 p.m. Wednesday in the fuel farm area at the airport's perimeter.

People who were nearby at the time said they heard an explosion and then saw flames erupt. Large plumes of smoke billowed into the night sky. The smoke could be seen as far away as Coral Gables and Brickell Avenue.

“It appears to be some sort of malfunction of the system,” said Greg Chin.

That malfunction happened in the fuel system, causing gallons of gas to go up in flames.

“What caught on fire were some fuel pumps, not the fuel tanks, but the fuel pumps,” said Chin.

Airport officials told Local 10's Roger Lohse that the underground pipes were not affected, but the pumps and electronics that deliver fuel to those pipes were badly damaged.

About 50 firefighters battled the flames, extinguishing them by about 1:20 a.m. Firefighters told Local 10’s Ben Kennedy it was the most intense fire they had ever seen.

"Firefighters were working an area with hundreds of thousands of gallons on all sides of them, trying to get foam on there to prevent flames from coming up," said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Capt. Eric Baum.

The fire was not near any runways or terminals, and no injuries were reported.

"The plan today did work," Baum said. "This was a very significant fire, but we were able to prevent that fire from spreading out of the immediate area of the tank farm, and that's why the airport was designed that way, to keep that isolated, away from passengers."

“Were hopeful to get some of the pumps working today and get back to normal operations,” said Chin.

All six fuel valves are turned off, so MIA can’t receive any new fuel either. The airport, however, does have enough fuel in reserve to run operations for the next 4 days.

The Perimeter Road entrance to the airport was closed, but it has since reopened.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Passengers are urged to check their flight status.

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