{"id":481830,"date":"2026-10-01T18:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T18:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/481830\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T18:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T18:12:09","slug":"bay-bridge-traffic-a-nightmare-pge-electrical-vault-fires-in-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/481830\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Bridge traffic a nightmare; PG&E electrical vault fires in San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Crews \"Crews Crews battling suspected vault fire in San Francisco’s Financial District<\/a> <\/p>\n

San Francisco crews are battling a suspected vault fire in the city’s Financial District, according to fire officials. The fire was first reported around 6:30 a.m. at 150 California St., according to the San Francisco Fire Department. According to the Fire Department, a power outage is believed to be linked to the fire.<\/p>\n

SAN FRANCISCO – Traffic on the Bay Bridge was a nightmare for Thursday morning commuters thanks to crashes on the San Mateo Bridge and a fire from several PG&E utility vaults in San Francisco’s financial district.<\/p>\n

Traffic, vault fire <\/p>\n

Why you should care:<\/p>\n

The California Highway Patrol reported two early morning crashes on the San Mateo Bridge, which sent some commuters over to the Bay Bridge, which began to start backing up before 7 a.m.<\/p>\n

Some drivers complained that it was taking them two hours to cross the Bay Bridge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, San Francisco crews were called out about 6:30 a.m. to the financial district after smoke was reported in an electrical PG&E vault under the street at 150 California Street, the fire department said. Four manhole covers erupted as pressure from the fire built up in vaults below the street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fire crews said they believed a power outage caused the fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Video showed PG&E crews at the scene, lifting a manhole cover to get to the underground vault.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Authorities issued a shelter-in-place for the 100 to 200 blocks of California Street and 100 to 200 blocks of Front Street.<\/p>\n

Fire spokesman Lt. Bruno Volo told KTVU that at one point, 8-feet flames shot out from the underground vault, giving off a “quick release of energy.”<\/p>\n

But he said crews were able to quickly get it under control.<\/p>\n

Volo called this a “PG&E incident,” and that the utility company had been able to de-energize the vault.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A PG&E vault is an underground concrete or steel enclosure built to provide technician access to cables, transformers and gas connections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Manhole covers erupted from the PG&E vault fire in San Francisco. Oct. , 2026 <\/p>\n

The Source: Information for this story comes from the San Francisco Fire Department, the California Highway Patrol and visual evidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Francisco<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crews battling suspected vault fire in San Francisco’s Financial District San Francisco crews are battling a suspected vault…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1184,100,143,145,144,101,1181],"class_list":["post-481830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-ca","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-san-francisco","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}