Puerto Rico probes fire that left 900K clients without power

Authorities say they are investigating what sparked a fire at a key substation in Puerto Rico that left 900,000 customers in the dark, with tens of thousands still without power

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Authorities said Friday they are investigating what sparked a fire at a key substation that plunged 900,000 customers into darkness across Puerto Rico, with tens of thousands still without power. Wayne Stensby, CEO of Luma Energy, which took over transmission and distribution this month for Puerto Rico's 1.5 million electricity customers, said he expects power to be fully restored by late Friday. He said officials don’t know what caused a transformer to blow on Thursday evening in a secured area monitored by cameras. “We have not located the source of the fault,” he said. “It’s clear that the electrical system here in Puerto Rico is very fragile.” Some 36,000 customers were still without power on Friday, including Gertrudis Calderón, who lives in a working-class neighborhood in the capital of San Juan. While the area has a solar-powered community center that was built after Hurricane Maria razed Puerto Rico’s electrical grid in 2017, she worries about the elderly people in her neighborhood who are bedridden and dependent on oxygen or refrigerated insulin.