UPDATE: Entergy says power has been fully restored.

AMITE – A large fire at an electrical facility knocked out power to thousands of people in Tangipahoa and St. Helena Parish Wednesday.

Power outages were reported in the communities of Velma; All of Amite, Roseland, Fluker and most of the village of Tangipahoa. Most of eastern St. Helena Parish and a small portion of Livingston Parish along La. 441 was also without power Wednesday afternoon.

Tangipahoa Parish had the most outages as of 4:30 – Entergy reported nearly 9,000 people had lost power.

Authorities said they received reports of heavy smoke near a power substation earlier in the afternoon and found a fire when they arrived. On social media, people shared pictures of electrical equipment ablaze.

There is now word on what caused the fire. The blaze was put out around 5:30 and crews say they'll now assess how to restore power as well investigate the cause.

On its online power outage map, Entergy said power should be restored later Wednesday evening.

It's not clear what caused the fire.

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