Thousands without power, airport operations disrupted after major outage hits Oakland

A major outage caused by a fire at a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. substation left more than 50,000 Oakland residents without power for hours Sunday and disrupted service at the city’s airport.

The outage started just before 1 p.m., and 8,526 customers remained without power as of 8:30 p.m., according to the utility’s outage map. The utility company estimated that service would not be fully restored until early Monday morning.

According to Oakland fire officials, the blackout was triggered by a fire at a substation near 50th Avenue and Coliseum Way. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

“We are working safely and quickly as possible to restore remaining customers,” PG&E spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian tweeted at 7 p.m. “Some customers may remain [without] power for up to 12 hours as we work to replace the transformer.”

The outage affected Oakland International Airport for at least two hours, with travelers describing delayed flights and snarled security lines, area news outlets reported. Power returned to the airport at 2:20 p.m., according to NBC Bay Area.

The outage has also affected part of Alameda, causing its three drawbridges to stop working and disrupting traffic access to the island, CBS Bay Area reported.