Without electricity, Bastian said he was unable to fully serve patients who depend on the pharmacy.<\/p>\n
“If I don’t have electricity, I cannot deliver that community service. I cannot deliver the health care I’m supposed to, and that is not right,” he said.<\/p>\n
Nearby businesses scrambled to stay open despite the outage. At Cigarettes Cheaper, employee Aziz Amari continued serving customers using cash transactions and candlelight.<\/p>\n
“Still open for my customers — only cash,” Amari said.<\/p>\n
He also worried about merchandise losses as freezers sat without power.<\/p>\n
“Ice cream, when it melts, no one’s going to buy it,” he said.<\/p>\n
Residents reported seeing possible electrical problems before the outage. Allyssa Walter said she witnessed a power line sparking near Anza Street and 16th Avenue.<\/p>\n
“It started smoking and sparking. Sparks were flying on the floor, then it exploded out of nowhere with a big power flash,” Walter said.<\/p>\n
The outage also created traffic congestion as signal lights went dark along major streets, including Park Presidio Boulevard.<\/p>\n
In a statement, PG&E said, “During a routine operational procedure between two San Francisco substations, a protective device on the system activated and there was an outage. Initially, about 9,400 customers in the Richmond and Golden Gate Park neighborhoods were affected.”<\/p>\n
Earlier Saturday, PG&E’s outage reporting system incorrectly showed more than 120,000 customers without power. The utility later attributed the discrepancy to a system glitch.<\/p>\n
The outage is the latest in a series of power disruptions affecting the neighborhood. Residents point out that it is at least the fourth significant outage in the area in the past seven months. In December, a fire at a PG&E substation triggered a widespread blackout across parts of San Francisco.<\/p>\n
At Royal Market and Bakery, owner Vardges Kazaryan toured his darkened store by flashlight, concerned he could once again lose refrigerated inventory.<\/p>\n
“No power, no people, no money,” Kazaryan said.<\/p>\n
PG&E said service was fully restored Saturday afternoon. The utility is investigating the cause of Saturday’s outage and if the arcing power line at 16th Avenue and Anza Street played a role.<\/p>\n
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