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Puerto Rico Blackout Leaves More Than 1 Million without Power

A fire at a electrical power plant in Puerto Rico on Wednesday has left 1.5 million people without electricity.
Photo of firefighters at the power plant fire in Salinas.
Photo of firefighters at the power plant fire in Salinas.@BomberosELAPR
/ Source: Travel + Leisure

A fire at a power plant in Puerto Rico on Wednesday has left an estimated 1.5 million people without electricity.

The fire began at the Central Aguirre Power Authority in Salinas at 2:30 p.m. EST, according to Angel Figueroa Jaramillo, President of Utier, the Electrical Industry and Irrigation Workers Union on the island.

According to Telemundo, authorities have the fire under control and no injuries have been reported.

The fire and power outage have affected towns throughout the island: Bayamón, Carolina, Caguas, Fajardo, Mayagüez, Guaynabo, Río Grande, Humacao, Dorado, Cayey, Isabela, Guayama and San Juan.

In a press release, the Puerto Rico Authority of Electric Energy said that a fault on two lines has affected clients throughout the island.

"Right now there is an investigation and there will be updates later on," the statement said.

People in Puerto Rico have taken to social media to express concern for their well-being, their family's security and how much the power outage affects their lives. Some users are tweeting that the island's debt crisis is partly to blame for the fire.

Plaza las Americas, the largest shopping mall in the Caribbean, has been closed because of the outage.

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