PG&E Power Outage Paralyzes Golden Gate Park and Richmond District

Unexpected Blackout Disrupts San Francisco’s West Side

Thousands of residents, commuters, and park-goers were plunged into darkness Monday afternoon when a sudden equipment failure knocked out power across a swath of San Francisco’s Richmond District and the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park.

Timeline of the Outage

According to Pacific Gas & Electric, the first calls came in at 2:17 p.m., minutes after a failed underground cable triggered a cascade of protective shutdowns. By 2:30 p.m., the utility’s outage map glowed crimson over a three-square-mile radius bounded by Fulton Street to the north, Lincoln Way to the south, 25th Avenue to the west, and Stanyan Street to the east.

“We heard a loud pop, then everything went black,” said Mei Lin, who was closing her Irving Street bakery when the lights cut out. “Customers were stuck in the elevator; the whole block smelled like burnt rubber.”

Impacts Ripple Across Neighborhoods

• Traffic Chaos: Signals at 19 key intersections went dark, prompting the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to deploy officers in reflective vests to direct cars and Muni buses.
• Golden Gate Park Closures: The California Academy of Sciences, the de Young Museum, and the Conservatory of Flowers evacuated visitors and shut their doors for the remainder of the day. Food trucks lining the Music Concourse lost an estimated $40,000 in combined revenue.
• Remote-Work Disruption: With temperatures in the low 60s, many households lost both Wi-Fi and heat, sending coffee shops on Clement Street into overflow mode.

Restoration Efforts Underway

PG&E spokesperson Brandon Lee confirmed that 14 line crews and two underground fault-detection teams were mobilized within the hour. “Our preliminary diagnosis points to an aging 12-kilovolt feeder cable that dates back to 1972,” Lee said. “We are now replacing 1,200 feet of that cable and upgrading three switch cabinets.”

Power began trickling back shortly after 9 p.m.; by 11:07 p.m., all 7,842 affected customers had electricity again. The utility has opened a claims portal for residents who lost refrigerated medicine or business inventory.

What Happens Next?

State regulators have ordered PG&E to submit a full incident report within 10 business days. Meanwhile, Supervisor Connie Chan, whose district covers the Richmond, is calling for accelerated undergrounding of overhead lines. “San Franciscans deserve a grid that won’t fail on a calm, sunny afternoon,” Chan told reporters outside City Hall.

PG&E has not ruled out the possibility of a second, shorter outage later this week while final cable tests are completed. The company is urging customers to update their contact information so they can receive real-time alerts by text or email.