Substation fire and lengthy repairs caused massive San Francisco power outage
The SFFD is inspecting the cause of the fire, and PG&E is bringing in a third-party company to inspect its substation.
POWER RIGHT NOW TO SOME CUSTOMERS AFTER THIS WEEKEND’S MASSIVE BAY AREA OUTAGE. TODAY, OFFICIALS EXPLAINING WHAT LED TO HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF CUSTOMERS LOSING THEIR POWER. KCRA 3’S RYAN CURRY JOINS US LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO RIGHT NOW. SO, RYAN, WE KNOW A FIRE INSIDE A PG&E BUILDING STARTED THIS. BUT WHAT ELSE HAVE THEY TOLD YOU ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED HERE? WELL, THEY SAID THAT FIRE CAUSED EXTENSIVE DAMAGE. IT TOOK HIM A LONG TIME TO GET EVERYTHING ORGANIZED SO THEY CAN START MAKING REPAIRS. THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT CAUSED THE FIRE, BUT THEY DO KNOW THAT IT CAUSED ENOUGH DAMAGE TO WHERE THE REPAIRS THEY SAID WERE EXTENSIVE. NOW, THEY SAID THE FIRE STARTED AROUND ONE IN THE AFTERNOON ON SATURDAY. IT TOOK THE SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT UNTIL 6 P.M. THAT NIGHT TO PUT OUT THE FIRE, DELAYING THE TIME WHEN PG&E COULD START MAKING THEIR REPAIRS. NOW, ONCE WORKERS WENT BACK INSIDE TO START THOSE REPAIRS AT THE MISSION STREET SUBSTATION, THAT’S WHERE IT HAPPENED. THEY DISCOVERED THE REPAIRS WERE GOING TO TAKE A WHILE, HENCE THE REASON WHY SO MANY PEOPLE WERE OUT OF POWER FOR A LONG TIME. THEY SAID THE FIRE DAMAGED SEVERAL BREAKERS INSIDE THE SUBSTATION SUBSTATION, LEADING TO OUTAGES FOR CUSTOMERS ALL OVER THE CITY, MOSTLY AFFECTING THE AREAS IN THE INNER RICHMOND DISTRICT, MANY OF WHOM WERE WITHOUT POWER FOR MOST OF THE WEEKEND. WE HAD TO DE-ENERGIZE ADDITIONAL PORTIONS OF OUR ELECTRIC SYSTEM TO MAKE IT SAFE FOR THE FIRE DEPARTMENT TO SUPPRESS THE FIRE, WHICH CAUSED OUTAGES TO PEAK AT APPROXIMATELY 130,000 CUSTOMERS BY 4 P.M. THE FIRE SUPPRESSION INVOLVED ADDITIONAL COMPLEXITIES. THE COMPLEXITIES INCLUDED VENTILATING CARBON MONOXIDE FROM THE MULTILEVEL BUILDING IN THE ENTIRETY OF THE BUILDING, SO IT WAS SAFE FOR OUR PERSONNEL TO BEGIN INITIATING THE RESTORATION PROCESS, PG&E SAYS. THEY DID AN INSPECTION OF THIS SUBSTATION BACK IN OCTOBER, AND NOTHING STOOD OUT TO THEM AS POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS. THEY SAY THEY DIDN’T IDENTIFY ANY POTENTIAL RED FLAGS AT THAT PARTICULAR FACILITY. THE SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT IS INVESTIGATING THE CAUSE OF THE FIRE, AND PGE IS ALSO DOING AN INVESTIGATION ON THEIR OWN. THEY’RE BRINGING IN A THIRD PARTY TO DETERMINE WHAT CAUSED THIS FIRE TO BREAK OUT. BUT FOR NOW, REPORTING LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO, RYAN CURRY KCRA THREE THREE NEWS GUYS. YEAH. WELL, SO, RYAN, I MEAN, DID THE PG&E TALK ABOUT CUSTOMERS FRUSTRATIONS WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING THEIR POWER BACK ON? WELL, THAT WAS PROBABLY SOME OF THE BIGGEST THINGS THAT THEY DID TRY TO ADDRESS BECAUSE CUSTOMERS WERE OBVIOUSLY FRUSTRATED THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE WEEKEND, PARTICULARLY WHEN THEY WERE LEARNING WHEN POWER COULD COME BACK ON. THEY WERE GETTING THOSE TEXT ALERTS FROM PG&E. WITH THAT TIME CONTINUOUSLY GETTING PUSHED BACK HOUR BY HOUR BY HOUR ALL THROUGHOUT SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. AND IT WASN’T UNTIL THEY COULD GET THINGS REALLY UP AND RUNNING THAT THEY PEOPLE DIDN’T REALLY KNOW WHEN POWER COMING BACK ON. AND JUST THIS MORNING, THEY TOLD US THAT THEY WOULD HAVE POWER RESTORED BY 2 P.M. FOR EVERYBODY WHO IS AFFECTED BY THIS PARTICULAR OUTAGE. AND THEN AT OUR PRESS CONFERENCE, THEY SAID, WELL, ACTUALLY, FOR SOME OF THE CUSTOMERS, WE’RE GOING TO NEED A LITTLE BIT MORE TIME. SO FRUSTRATION, OF COURSE, ON THE MINDS OF A LOT OF THESE CUSTOMERS, OBVIOUSLY, AND RIGHTFULLY SO. YEAH, HOPEFULLY THEY CAN GET THE LIGHTS O
Hearst TV Multimedia Journalist
Substation fire and lengthy repairs caused massive San Francisco power outage
The SFFD is inspecting the cause of the fire, and PG&E is bringing in a third-party company to inspect its substation.
Updated: 6:33 PM PST Dec 22, 2025
Hearst TV Multimedia Journalist
Officials from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. say the fire at the San Francisco substation that caused power to go out for 130,000 customers left extensive damage that requires lengthy repairs. Officials from the company say the fire started around 1 p.m. Saturday and the San Francisco Fire Department didn’t fully put out the fire until around 6 p.m. By then, the power was out for thousands of customers and PG&E says the repair process took a long time. “We had to de-energize additional portions of our electric system to make it safe for the fire department to suppress the fire,” said Sumeet Singh, CEO of PG&E operations. “Which caused outages to peak at approximately 130,000 customers by 4 p.m.”See PG&E’s outage map here. The outages forced the closure of businesses and restaurants across the city and led to traffic delays. Waymo temporarily suspended service as the driverless cars struggled to navigate without working streetlights and stalled out in intersections.Outages in many parts of the city persisted throughout Saturday and into Sunday. PG&E restored power in increments to some customers, but around 4,500 customers still did not have power on Monday morning. As of 6:30 p.m. on Monday, 2,988 customers were still in the dark. “The fire suppression involved additional complexities,” Singh said. “The complexities included ventilating carbon monoxide from the multi-level building and the entirety of the building, so it was safe for our personnel to begin initiating the restoration process.”PG&E said they did inspect the substation that caught fire in October, and they claim nothing alarming showed up during that inspection. The SFFD is inspecting the cause of the fire, and PG&E is bringing in a third-party company to inspect its substation. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
SAN FRANCISCO —
Officials from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. say the fire at the San Francisco substation that caused power to go out for 130,000 customers left extensive damage that requires lengthy repairs.
Officials from the company say the fire started around 1 p.m. Saturday and the San Francisco Fire Department didn’t fully put out the fire until around 6 p.m. By then, the power was out for thousands of customers and PG&E says the repair process took a long time.
“We had to de-energize additional portions of our electric system to make it safe for the fire department to suppress the fire,” said Sumeet Singh, CEO of PG&E operations. “Which caused outages to peak at approximately 130,000 customers by 4 p.m.”
The outages forced the closure of businesses and restaurants across the city and led to traffic delays. Waymo temporarily suspended service as the driverless cars struggled to navigate without working streetlights and stalled out in intersections.
Outages in many parts of the city persisted throughout Saturday and into Sunday. PG&E restored power in increments to some customers, but around 4,500 customers still did not have power on Monday morning. As of 6:30 p.m. on Monday, 2,988 customers were still in the dark.
“The fire suppression involved additional complexities,” Singh said. “The complexities included ventilating carbon monoxide from the multi-level building and the entirety of the building, so it was safe for our personnel to begin initiating the restoration process.”
PG&E said they did inspect the substation that caught fire in October, and they claim nothing alarming showed up during that inspection. The SFFD is inspecting the cause of the fire, and PG&E is bringing in a third-party company to inspect its substation.
See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel