A big fire erupted at an electricity plant that powers most of Puerto Rico on Wednesday, and a blackout swept across the U.S. territory of 3.5 million people. The Electric Power Authority said two transmission lines of 230,000 volts each failed for reasons still being investigated. The island's fire department said it extinguished a blaze at the power plant in southern Puerto Rico that serves a majority of customers on the island. The outage angered many Puerto Ricans who are struggling with power bills that are on average twice that of the U.S. mainland. Puerto Rico is mired in a decade-long economic slump and the territory's government is working to restructure nearly $70 billion in public debt that the governor has said is unpayable.

Source: Los Angeles Times September 21, 2016 22:11 UTC