Massive Power Outage Hits Puerto Rico

Updated 8 p.m. ET with fire extinguished

The Associated Press reports that a fire that had cut off electricity to much of Puerto Rico has been extinguished. Local authorities say that most power is expected to be restored by Thursday morning.

The AP added this:

"Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla told reporters the fire began in a switch and initially destroyed a system that provides 30 percent of Puerto Rico's overall power.

" 'This is a very serious event,' he said. 'The system is not designed to withstand a failure of this magnitude.' "

Our original post continues:

A major power outage has been reported on the island of Puerto Rico.

In a statement, the island's power company, Autoridad de Energia Eléctrica, said the outage is affecting customers throughout the island.

The Puerto Rican paper El Nuevo Dia reports that 1.5 million customers are without power owing to the "complete collapse of the system." The paper reports the outage was caused by a fire at a substation.

Puerto Rican firefighters later tweeted that the fire at the Aguirre power plant has been "controlled."