Power has been restored to nearly all Island homes after a utility transformer exploded in Vineyard Haven Monday afternoon. The outage lasted for approximately two hours and left thousands of homes from Vineyard Haven to Aquinnah without electricity.

At its peak, an online outage map on NStar’s website showed that 94 per cent of all Aquinnah and Chilmark residences were without electricity. In West Tisbury and Vineyard Haven, more than 80 per cent of homes were affected. Scattered outages were  reported in the other Island towns.

According to the Tisbury police, a transformer located across from Crane Appliance, on State Road in Vineyard Haven, caught fire at approximately 3:15 p.m. Friday. Traffic was reduced to one lane for several hours while NStar crews responded to the scene.