US power cut leaves 120,000 in dark

Crews were restoring power to thousands of homes and businesses today following a blackout that left a third of San Francisco without electricity on one of the busiest days of the Christmas holiday season.

The power outage started just before 6pm yesterday day when a fire broke out at a major Pacific Gas & Electric Co substation.

About 120,000 customers lost power, including parts of Mission, North Beach, Chinatown and downtown San Francisco, PG&E officials said.

The power cuts forced early evacuations at theatres and shopping centres, restaurants closed early, and street lights stopped working, causing traffic problems throughout the city.

Officials had expected to have power restored by dawn today, said PG&E spokesman Jonathan Franks. Engineers had restored power late on Saturday to about half of the affected customers, but those customers were plunged back into darkness when workers discovered the fire had not been fully contained and the substation had to be shut down again.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, Franks said.

“There’s no indication that it was vandalism or sabotage. As far as the exact cause, we just don’t know yet,” he said.