Buenos Aires, Mar 2 (IANS): Argentina is facing a massive electricity outage after a fire affected the national power grid, leading to blackouts in half of the South American nation, the media reported.

The fire on Wednesday reportedly started in open fields, affecting crucial power lines in the coastal zone and putting a nuclear power station offline, reports the BBC.

The outage comes amid a heatwave in Argentina, with day temperatures hovering over 35 degrees Celsius.

The sweltering conditions along with the power outage have brought daily life to a halt in some regions, with classes suspended and businesses closed.

Major cities are worst affected, with an estimated 150,000 people still without power in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area.

The Energy Ministry has said it is confident of restoring power soon.

In 2019 a massive electrical failure left tens of millions of people in the dark in Argentina as well as neighbouring Uruguay.

The following year, hundreds of thousands of homes were plunged into darkness in Buenos Aires.