Fire knocks out power to 22K people in south Florida

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Authorities in Florida say a fire at a power utility substation left thousands of people in Broward County without power.

News outlets report an explosion at a Florida Power & Light substation in Fort Lauderdale late Tuesday interrupted service and forced the temporary evacuation of a nearby arts center.

Fort Lauderdale police say they received a call about the fire at about 8 p.m., and FPL says about 22,000 customers were without power as of about 10 p.m. That number dropped to about 14,000 an hour later.

The utility’s outage tracker showed that up to about 33,700 customers were affected. FPL says it’s investigating the cause of the fire, which was brought under control by local fire agencies and had no reported injuries.