A significant power failure struck San Francisco on Saturday, leaving approximately 130,000 homes and businesses without electricity, according to utility provider Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E).
Scale and Spread of the Blackout
The outage began in the early afternoon, initially affecting the Richmond and Presidio neighbourhoods and areas surrounding Golden Gate Park. It then expanded to cover a substantial portion of the city's northern sector. The scale of the failure impacted roughly one-third of PG&E's customer base within San Francisco city limits. The cause was not immediately disclosed by the company.
Citywide Disruption and Emergency Response
The loss of power triggered widespread consequences across the city. Social media and local news reports detailed mass closures of restaurants and shops, while street lights and festive Christmas decorations went dark. The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management took to social media platform X to warn of "significant transit disruptions" citywide.
Residents were advised to avoid non-essential travel and to treat any inoperative traffic signals as four-way stops. Transportation agencies confirmed that some Muni bus routes and BART train stations were being bypassed due to the lack of power.
Cause and Restoration Efforts
Fire officials provided a key update on X around 3:15 p.m., stating that at least a portion of the blackouts was caused by a fire inside a PG&E substation located at 8th and Mission streets. PG&E later posted on the same platform at approximately 4 p.m., announcing it had stabilised the power grid and did not anticipate further customer outages.
However, the utility firm could not confirm whether power would be fully restored by the end of Saturday. The incident, occurring on 21 December 2024, underscores ongoing challenges with infrastructure reliability.
