A massive blackout has hit Puerto Rico after a fire broke out at one of the island’s main electricity plants, leaving almost half of the US territory’s 3.5 million inhabitants without power. “But this one I think was a bigger issue.”The island’s fire department said it extinguished a blaze on Wednesday at the power plant in southern Puerto Rico that serves a majority of customers on the island. — Mari 🌐 (@sharmari21) No traffic lights in Puerto Rico at rush hour. #ApagónPRThe outage angered many Puerto Ricans, who are struggling with power bills that are on average twice that of the US mainland. Puerto Rico is mired in a decade-long economic slump and the territory’s government is working to restructure nearly $70bin in public debt that the governor has said is unpayable.

Source: The Guardian September 21, 2016 22:57 UTC