A blaze at a Pacific Gas & Electric substation knocked out power to large swaths of San Francisco on Tuesday, leaving roughly 125,000–130,000 customers without electricity and plunging parts of the city into an unexpected blackout.
Officials said the fire at the PG&E facility was a major factor in the outage, which was reported across multiple neighborhoods and described by some outlets as affecting nearly a third of the city. As crews worked to assess and repair the damage, residents and businesses scrambled to deal with dead traffic lights, darkened storefronts and the lost conveniences of an electrified city.
What happened and why it matters
Early reports put the number of affected customers in the mid‑five digits for neighborhoods across the city, while others cited counts closer to 130,000. Whether the correct total is 125,000 or 130,000, the practical effect was the same: commuters, restaurants, offices and transit riders faced interruptions at an inconvenient hour.
A substation fire can do more than simply cut power to homes. It can damage equipment that takes time to repair or replace, complicate restoration by creating safety hazards for utility crews, and trigger cascading outages as the grid shifts loads to remaining lines. For a dense, infrastructure‑dependent city like San Francisco, those ripple effects are immediate and visible.
What officials told people to do
City and utility officials urged caution around downed lines and advised residents to treat any exposed wires as live. PG&E crews and emergency responders typically prioritize repairs that restore power to critical facilities first — hospitals, communications centers and emergency services — then work through neighborhoods.
If you need to contact emergency services during an outage, new options have started to appear in recent years: some carriers now offer satellite‑assisted texting to 911 in limited circumstances, which can help when cell coverage or networks are degraded. For details on that capability, see the story about how carriers are expanding satellite texting for emergencies at T‑Mobile Lets Any Compatible Phone Text 911 via Starlink.
How people and devices are affected
Beyond the immediate blackout, power interruptions expose how dependent homes and businesses have become on connected devices. Smart locks, thermostats, security cameras and lighting systems often lose functionality without power or internet. If you’re counting on smart‑home reliability during outages, remember that standards like Matter and the proliferation of connected appliances change how people experience disruptions — and whether devices come back online automatically depends on how they’re configured. If you use smart devices, a useful primer on the growing Matter ecosystem is here: IKEA’s 21‑Device Matter Push Makes Smart Homes Cheaper and Simpler.
For owners of legacy devices, there are occasional grassroots fixes that can keep things running longer. Hobbyist projects have even restored older smart thermostats that lost official cloud support, a reminder that not all solutions are commercial or immediate: Hobbyist Firmware Brings Old Nest Thermostats Back Online After Google Ends Cloud Support.
Practical steps while crews work
- Keep a charged phone and a battery bank handy, and limit nonessential usage to conserve power.
- Treat downed power lines as dangerous and avoid them; report them to PG&E or local authorities.
- If traffic signals are out, treat intersections as four‑way stops and drive cautiously.
- Check on neighbors who might be vulnerable — elderly residents and people dependent on electrically powered medical equipment.
Crews can take hours to fully isolate damaged equipment and restore service safely; sometimes restoration is staggered so power returns to some blocks while repairs continue in others. Expect intermittent updates from PG&E and the city as crews complete inspections and repairs.
This outage is a reminder that urban life depends on a web of aging infrastructure, operational decisions and emergency preparedness. For residents, the immediate tasks are simple: stay informed, stay safe, and prepare for a few more hours of inconvenience while technicians do the hard work of getting the lights back on.