A significant power failure has left approximately 130,000 homes and businesses across San Francisco without electricity, plunging at least a third of the city into darkness.
Widespread Impact Across the City
The large-scale outage began on Saturday, affecting a substantial portion of the city's northern districts. The disruption initially hit the Richmond and Presidio neighbourhoods, as well as areas surrounding the iconic Golden Gate Park.
Reports from social media and local media outlets detailed mass closures of restaurants and shops. The festive season was dimmed, with Christmas decorations and street lights rendered inoperative across affected zones.
Transport Chaos and Emergency Response
The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management issued a warning on social media platform X, citing 'significant transit disruptions' citywide. Officials urged residents to avoid non-essential travel and instructed them to treat non-functioning traffic signals as four-way stops.
The city's transport agencies confirmed substantial service interruptions. Both Muni bus services and BART train stations were bypassed in areas crippled by the loss of power.
Cause and Restoration Efforts
The blackouts were triggered, at least in part, by a fire that erupted inside a Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) substation located at 8th and Mission streets.
PG&E announced via X around 4pm that it had managed to stabilise the power grid and did not anticipate further customer outages. However, the utility firm stated it was unable to provide a confirmed timeline for full power restoration to all affected properties.
This outage impacted roughly one-third of PG&E's customer base within the city. The company has not yet publicly commented on the precise cause of the initial substation fire and subsequent failure.
