Outage Leaves 120,000 San Franciscans in the Dark

Crews began restoring power to customers early Sunday after a massive power outage that disrupted traffic, shut down two transit stations and left a third of the city without electricity on one of the busiest days of the holiday season.

The blackout started just before 6 p.m. Saturday when a fire broke out at a major Pacific Gas & Electric Co. substation that feeds smaller neighborhood substations.

About 120,000 customers lost power. The affected districts included Mission, North Beach, Chinatown, Fillmore, Western Addition, Sunset, Richmond and downtown San Francisco, PG&E; officials said.

About 24,000 customers remained without power in downtown San Francisco, Chinatown and the Haight-Ashbury district about 2:30 p.m. Sunday, but power was expected to be restored throughout the city by evening, said PG&E; spokesman Jonathan Franks. Utility officials earlier had thought power would be fully restored by dawn.

“It has taken a little bit longer. We’ve had to do some extensive cleaning, a little bit more than we thought,” Franks said.

Environmental concerns also contributed to the delay. Workers had to don protective clothing to guard against particles and fumes stirred up by the fire.

PG&E; employees were evacuated from the substation, located at Mission and 8th streets, while firefighters put out the blaze, Franks said.

After the substation was reopened, PG&E; engineers were able to restore power Saturday night to about half the affected customers. Those customers were plunged back into darkness, however, when it was discovered that the fire had not been fully contained and the substation had to be shut down again.

The cause of the fire and the power outage was still being investigated, Franks said.

“There’s no indication that it was vandalism or sabotage. As far as the exact cause, we just don’t know yet,” he said.

The power outage forced early closures and evacuations at theaters, restaurants and shopping centers, including the Metreon complex on Mission Street.

Streetlights stopped working, causing traffic problems throughout the city.

The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District closed its Powell and Civic Center stations, but trains continued to run as usual, BART officials said.

Emergency dispatch officials said calls did not increase as a result of the blackout.