A significant power outage affected 130,000 homes and businesses in San Francisco on Saturday, as reported by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E). The outage primarily impacted the northern part of the city, beginning in the Richmond and Presidio neighborhoods, as well as areas surrounding Golden Gate Park. The power failure commenced in the early afternoon and progressively expanded.

PG&E has not yet responded to inquiries regarding the cause of the widespread blackouts. This outage represents approximately one-third of the utility's customer base within the city, highlighting its scale and impact. Customers took to social media and local news outlets to report mass closures of restaurants and businesses, along with non-functioning streetlights and Christmas decorations, which added to the sense of disruption in the city.

The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management published an advisory on X, acknowledging "significant transit disruptions" occurring citywide. They urged residents to avoid nonessential travel and to treat inoperative traffic signals as four-way stops for safety. In response to the power failures, the city’s transportation agencies announced the bypassing of certain Muni bus and BART train stations due to the outages.

Fire officials revealed that at least part of the blackouts was attributable to a fire that erupted inside a PG&E substation located at 8th and Mission streets around 3:15 p.m. The incident underscored the potential dangers linked to the utility infrastructure, which ultimately contributed to the substantial loss of power in the area. PG&E communicated via their social media platform around 4 p.m., indicating that they had stabilized the power grid and did not anticipate further customer outages. However, they could not confirm if power would be restored later that day.

This incident highlights the vulnerabilities that urban areas face regarding power supply and the ripple effects such outages can cause in daily life. As neighborhoods faced darkness, the impact on local businesses and the disruption in transportation services emphasized the broader implications of the power failure, illustrating how interconnected city systems are.