On Wednesday evening Puerto Rico was hit with an island wide blackout after a central electrical plant in San Juan caught on fire. The fire was under control by 10pm and there were no injuries reported, but they thought it could take more than a few hours to get everything turned back on.
While the lights were all out on Wednesday evening, the cell phone service was not disrupted, and they were able to keep the Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in San Juan open where there were no delays or cancellations. However people traveling by car and train experienced a standstill.
The fire hit a part of the plant that provides 30 percent of the power to Puerto Rico, which left half of the 3.5 million people on the island without power. The power outage also led to 15 other fires, which were the result of generators malfunctioning under the stress. One was at the mayor’s office in the northern coastal town of Catano, and another was at the Vanderbilt hotel in the touristy area Condado.
The governor of Puerto Rico Alejandro García Padilla spoke out about the severity of the incident.
“This is a very serious event. The system is not designed to withstand a failure of this magnitude.”
