San Francisco — Nearly 130,000 homes and businesses in San Francisco were left without power Saturday in a series of widespread blackouts that darkened entire neighborhoods, disrupted transit, and left city officials scrambling to coordinate a response.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the region’s largest utility provider, reported no immediate timeline for restoring electricity.
The outages began in the morning on the city’s West Side and gradually spread across neighborhoods, including the Richmond, Sunset, Hayes Valley, and Mission districts.
At least one of the blackouts was linked to a fire inside a PG&E substation on 8th and Mission streets in the early afternoon, while the causes of other outages remained unclear throughout the day.
The first reported outage occurred at approximately 9:40 am cutting power to more than 14,600 residential and commercial customers in the Inner Sunset and Forest Hill areas.
A second outage followed at 10:10 a.m., affecting 24,800 customers in the Presidio, Richmond, and sections of Market Street. By early afternoon, multiple blackouts had spread further, impacting tens of thousands more and forcing transit agencies to adjust operations.
San Francisco Fire Lt. Mariano Elias said the substation fire was reported at 2:15 p.m., and PG&E employees called 911 one minute later.
“Firefighters were using specialized carbon monoxide equipment to extinguish flames on the first floor,” Elias said. PG&E confirmed the blaze was fully extinguished by 6 p.m., and company investigators had begun determining the cause.
Mayor Daniel Lurie addressed residents from the city’s emergency operations center, urging caution on the roads. “A lot of the lights are out. Stay safe and we will continue to be in touch with PG&E,” Lurie said in a video statement.
Energy analysts said San Francisco’s power grid, which relies heavily on PG&E, can be vulnerable during extreme weather or technical failures.
“Outages of this scale highlight the ongoing challenges in maintaining reliable electricity delivery in densely populated urban areas,” said Dr. Emily Tran, an energy systems expert at the University of California, Berkeley.
PG&E has faced criticism in recent years for infrastructure issues linked to wildfires and aging equipment. Experts noted that substation fires, while uncommon, can cascade across the grid, leaving large numbers of customers without power.
“Even a single fault in a substation can disrupt service for tens of thousands, which is what we saw today,” Tran said.
According to PG&E’s outage tracker, the blackout at its peak affected roughly one third of the utility’s San Francisco customers.
To put it in perspective, a 2019 outage during a Pacific storm impacted fewer than 70,000 customers, highlighting the unusually large scale of Saturday’s event.
Muni and BART transit services were significantly affected. Muni trains bypassed Van Ness, Civic Center, and Powell stations due to lack of electricity, while holiday lights and local businesses went dark across the city.
For local residents and business owners, the blackout brought immediate challenges. Samantha Lado, a bartender at Foghorn Taproom in the Inner Richmond, said the outage left her pub without working televisions and warm beer during the afternoon’s football games.
“It sucks. We couldn’t serve our customers properly and had to put out candles just to keep some light,” she said. Commuters also faced disruptions.
Marcus Lee, a software engineer, said he had to walk several blocks when BART bypassed his usual station. “It’s frustrating, but you have to be patient. Safety comes first,” he said.
PG&E did not provide an estimated timeline for power restoration as of early evening, leaving city officials and residents to navigate an uncertain situation. Emergency operations remain active, and authorities urged people to report hazards and avoid unsafe areas.
City officials indicated they would review the blackout’s causes once PG&E completes its investigation. Analysts expect the utility to issue recommendations to prevent similar incidents in the future, though widespread fixes may take time.
Saturday’s outages left much of San Francisco in darkness, impacting homes, businesses, and public transit, and underscored the challenges of maintaining a reliable urban power grid.
With no immediate estimate for restoration, city officials and residents continue to manage the effects of the blackouts while awaiting further updates from PG&E.
