Buenos Aires and other major cities in Argentina were left in the dark Wednesday afternoon.
A large power outage, affecting more than half of the country was set off when a fire struck the its national electricity grid, BBC News reported.
The blaze began in open fields, where it affected crucial power lines and put an entire nuclear power station offline.
The outage came during a heatwave that has caused a drought in the region. Argentina is currently in its summer months, and temperatures have been hovering around 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
It’s said to be the hottest summer on record in Buenos Aires, since recording began in 1906, according to the National Meteorological Service.
Now the heat coupled with the loss of power has put life to a standstill in much of the region. Classes have been suspended and businesses closed. Many are being forced to go without air conditioning or refrigeration.
An estimated 150,000 people are still without power in the Buenos Aires area.
The energy ministry says it is confident power will be restored in a timely manner.
In 2019, millions throughout Argentina and neighboring Uruguay were left without power when “a massive failure in the electrical interconnection system” occurred.
In 2020, hundreds of thousands of homes in Buenos Aires were left in the dark after a fire in a substation.
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