A major power outage hit San Francisco, leaving 130,000 PG&E customers or roughly 30% of the city blanketed in darkness on a rainy Saturday amid the busy holiday season.
The outage started in the morning, but a fire that broke out inside a PG&E power substation around 2:15 p.m. in the Mission district played a role in the blackouts, according to the San Francisco Fire Department. The fire was under control by 4:24 p.m. and the cause of the blaze is still unknown.
“I’m comfortable saying it’s a contributing factor to the power outages, but I don’t know if that’s the entire reason as to why,” said SFFD Lt. Mariano Elias.
PG&E couldn’t immediately be reached. The utility hasn’t said publicly what caused the massive outage.
The outage disrupted public transportation including BART trains. BART said on social media site X just after 3 p.m. that the stations at Powell Street and Civic Center were closed because of the outage and that trains in San Francisco were experiencing a 10-minute delay.
The Muni and Central Subway systems were not running.
The large outage comes as more rainy weather is expected to hit San Francisco and then move toward Los Angeles ahead of the holidays.
PG&E posted on X it’s working with city responders and officials on the issue. Power could be restored later today, PG&E posted on X.
“We have stabilized the grid and are not expecting additional customer outages at this time,” the utility said.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a video posted on social media that city officials are working with PG&E to restore power. “What I’m asking everybody to do is to be safe out in the roads. A lot of lights are out. We are going to continue to keep you posted,” Lurie said in the video.
The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management posted a map showing the outage heavily impacted the west side of the city. The affected areas include Richmond, Sunset, Presidio and Golden Gate Park.
The agency said on X people in the city should avoid nonessential travel; only call 911 for life threatening emergencies rather than reporting power outages; turn off major appliances to prevent surges in electricity; keep fridges and freezers closed and treat traffic signals that go dark as four-way stops. The department also cautioned people from using gas stoves, grills and generators indoors because power outages can increase the risks of carbon monoxide exposure.
