A widespread power outage hit the nation's capital on Tuesday, affecting the White House, the State Department, the Capitol and some 2,000 people in the D.C. area.
An unnamed U.S. official told CNN the outage was caused by a tiny explosion at a power substation in Maryland. Power was reportedly restored to the White House and other government buildings within minutes.
The explosion resulted in a minor fire at the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative substation partly operated by the utility company Pepco Holdings Inc., which serves the District of Columbia and Maryland. Firefighters extinguished the flames within half an hour, the Charles County Fire & EMS department told CNN.
The small explosion was likely an accident, and there were no indications of terrorism, the department said.
The lunchtime outage caused the White House to be without electricity for several minutes and interrupted the State Department's daily news brief, unnamed officials told the news agency.
The Smithsonian also reported electricity was down at four of its museums, including the National Air and Space Museum. All four were evacuated. Officials at the University of Maryland said its entire College Park campus was without power, WJLA reported.
Pepco said it was investigating the cause of the explosion.
D.C,'s rail system, also affected by the outage, is using backup power at thirteen of its stations, according to CNN.
