A major power outage left 130,000 homes and businesses in San Francisco without power on Saturday, Pacific Gas & Electric said.
The power outage left a large swath of the northern part of the city in darkness, starting in the Richmond and Presidio neighborhoods and areas around Golden Gate Park in the early afternoon and growing in size.
p&E did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the cause of the power outage. The outage accounts for nearly a third of the city’s utility company customers.
Social media posts and local media reported mass closings of restaurants and stores and the darkening of street lights and Christmas decorations.
San Francisco Emergency Management said on
City transit agencies said they bypassed some Muni bus and BART train stations due to power outages.
At least some of the power outages were caused by a fire that broke out inside the PG&Substation E at 8th and Mission streets, fire officials were deployed to the X at approximately 3:15 p.m.
At approximately 4 p.m., P.G&E posted on X that it had stabilized the power grid and was not anticipating additional customer outages. The company said it was unable to confirm whether power would be restored by later Saturday.