Massive Outage Leaves Millions Without Electricity In San Francisco After Fire At Power Station

A massive outage knocked out power to 130,000 homes and businesses in San Francisco, California, in the US on Saturday, leaving millions without electricity after a fire broke out at a substation, according to several local reports.

The power failure left a large swath of the northern part of the city in the dark, beginning with the Richmond and Presidio neighbourhoods and areas around Golden Gate Park in the early afternoon and growing in size, according to The Associated Press.

San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management confirmed on X that there was a large power outage affecting parts of San Francisco, including Richmond, Sunset, Presidio, and Golden Gate Park.

There is a large power outage affecting parts of San Francisco, including

Richmond, Sunset, Presidio, and Golden Gate Park. For more information from PG&E, including outage area and estimated restoration times, visit: https://t.co/DthlRd2zLd pic.twitter.com/na9hgJlWES

— San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (@SF_emergency) December 20, 2025

Pacific Gas and Electric Co also confirmed the outage, which represents roughly one-third of the utility company’s customers in the city. Social media posts and local media reported mass closures of restaurants and shops and darkened street lights and Christmas decorations.

SFFD is on scene of a 1 alarm fire at a PG&E substation located at 8th St. and Mission St. we are working collaboratively to shut shut down power and extinguish the fire with carbon dioxide. Please avoid the area , Heavy traffic. #sffd pic.twitter.com/1CmcK0CTIW

— SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) December 20, 2025

San Francisco, CA (LIVE)-
Vehicle transportation in the city of San Francisco is being completely brought to its knees by @waymo.
The service needs to shut down operations immediately within the city of due to the power outage.

None of the vehicles are capable of getting… https://t.co/mBFrRmmeZR pic.twitter.com/3jeo1mWadZ

— No Safe Words (@Cyber_Trailer) December 21, 2025

Shopping in the Dark: San Francisco Target Power Outage #SanFrancisco #PowerOutage #Target #CityLife pic.twitter.com/yzVBKmBocy

— Jermaine Ellis (@901cali) December 21, 2025

Fire officials later said some of the blackouts were caused by a fire that broke out inside a PG&E substation at 8th and Mission streets.

The Department of Emergency Management also reported “significant transit disruptions” happening citywide and urged residents to avoid nonessential travel and treat down traffic signals as four-way stops. The city’s transportation agencies said they were bypassing some Muni bus and BART train stations because of the power outages.

At about 4 pm (local time), PG&E posted on X that it had stabilised the power grid and was not expecting additional customer outages. The company said it was unable to confirm if power would be restored by late Saturday.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) said some of the stations at Powell Street and Civic Centre were closed because of the outage and that trains in San Francisco were experiencing a 10-minute delay. The large outage comes as more rainy weather is expected to hit San Francisco and then move toward Los Angeles ahead of the holidays, according to the Los Angeles Times.