San Francisco's Surprise Power Plunge

San Francisco faced a major power outage on a recent Saturday. Over 125, 000 people were left in the dark. That's nearly a third of the city's population. The issue started in the morning and got worse as the day went on. The outage hit many neighborhoods. Areas like Richmond, Sunset, Haight Ashbury, and even parts of downtown were affected. A map showed these places in red, indicating no electricity. A fire at a PG&E substation made things worse. The substation is a big, windowless building in the city center. Firefighters were called to the scene around 2 p. m. They advised people to stay away from the area around 8th and Mission Streets.The fire seemed to cause the outage to spread. But officials couldn't say for sure if it was the only reason. PG&E, the city's power company, said they were working to fix the problem. They also said the grid was stable and no more outages were expected. People were frustrated. Many were out shopping for the holidays. Stores and restaurants had trouble taking payments without electricity. PG&E told residents it could be hours before the power came back on. This outage was a big inconvenience. It showed how reliant the city is on technology. Even a small issue can cause major problems.