Weekend Substation Fire Knocked Out Power to 130,000 in San Francisco

A fire inside a PG&E substation left roughly 130,000 San Francisco homes and businesses without power Saturday, blacking out large parts of the city during one of the busiest weekends of the year.

The same substation was responsible for a December 2003 outage that affected about 120,000 customers.

The fire broke out around 1 p.m. Saturday. San Francisco firefighters used carbon dioxide to suppress flames burning inside the facility, bringing it under control by 6 p.m. PG&E said the grid was stabilized by 4:30 p.m., meaning no additional customers lost power, but restoration took hours longer.

The outage hit the Saturday before Christmas, disrupting holiday shopping, a Warriors game, and performances at the ballet and symphony.

By 9 p.m., PG&E had restored power to about 88,500 customers, leaving roughly 42,000 still in the dark. The company said it expected full restoration by Sunday. More than 1,300 residents visited a city recreation center to get water, snacks, and portable battery chargers while they waited.

PG&E is still investigating what caused the fire. District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood called the outage "unacceptable" and said further investigation is needed.