Boston slowly recovers after fire knocks out power to 21,000

Parts of Boston were expected to remain without power through Wednesday after a fire in an electrical transformer Tuesday night knocked out power to about 21,000 homes and businesses.

The fire, whose cause is being investigated, was reported at about 6:30 p.m. By Wednesday morning, power had been restored to Chinatown, Bay Village and areas east of Clarendon Street. But more than 10,000 custo0mers were still without power.

The outage complicated the morning commute because many traffic lights were still out. Police reportedly directed traffic at major intersections.

Electric utility NStar was bringing in generators and hoped to have power back to everyone by Wednesday evening, a company spokeswoman told The Associated Press.

“Our focus now is getting customers up and running, and after that we’ll look for the cause,” Caroline Allen said.

Some businesses were shut down, as was the Boston Public Library, though schools were open.

Heavy black smoke spewed into the sky in the first minutes of the transformer fire. Authorities said there was a danger of toxic emissions from the blaze.

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michael.muskal@latimes.com