The SFFD told KTVU that the outage was affecting at least 130,000 customers.
SAN FRANCISCO – More than 100,000 customers in San Francisco were left without power due to a massive PG&E outage on Saturday.
PG&E first reported an outage in the Inner Sunset affecting just under 15,000 customers around 9:40 a.m., which was followed by outages at around 10:10 a.m. affecting the Richmond, Presidio, and Golden Gate Park areas, and parts of downtown San Francisco that affected thousands more.
BART said trains would not run through the Powell Street, Civic Center and Van Ness stations due to the power outage. Video shared with KTVU showed the BART stations in the area darkened, with toll gates and escalators not functioning.
Also, the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management said traffic lights in the area would likely be affected.
PG&E’s outage map showed that – as of about 4:15 p.m. – nearly 125,000 users in San Francisco were without power, comprising more than 30% of the utility company’s customer base in the city.
San Francisco Fire Department Lt. Mariano Elias told KTVU that at least some of the outages were possibly related to a fire at a PG&E substation in the area of Eighth and Mission streets that was reported shortly after 2 p.m.
Elias said PG&E workers inside of the substation noticed the fire and they called the SFFD. PG&E workers evacuated the substation and shut off power to the building, allowing SFFD firefighters to douse the flames.
Elias said crews managed to get the fire under control with no injuries or displacement, but were working to ventilate the building after smoke accumulated inside.
PG&E said power was estimated to be restored to some areas around 3:45 p.m., while it was unknown when power would be restored for others.
However, PG&E Public Relations Coordinator Edgar Hopida said in a statement that the company could not confirm notifications on the PG&E website that power would be restored by late Saturday. He did note that crews have “stabilized the grid,” and no further outages were expected.
This is a developing story. Please stay with KTVU for updates.
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