Traffic is closed East Bound on Geary Boulevard between 29th & 31st Avenue until after 10:00 a.m. A PG&E vault fire (similar to this one in 2009) caused a widespread power outage. Please fine alternate routes to work or school or wherever today, folks. more ›

A major power outage hit San Francisco today affecting central San Francisco. An estimated 9,000 people are without juice. According to Andrew Dalton at SFist's western headquarters, "a couple of PG&E crews are at Hayes and Baker staring up at power lines and looking dumbfounded." The outage occurred at around 9:40 am. more ›

A whopping 7,000 PG&E customers are without power this morning after an outage hit the area. Intersections are affected and parking control officers are controlling intersections. Please be advised. Far worse a fate? SFist associate editor Andrew Dalton, who lives/works smack dab on Divisadero at SFist's western offfice, was unable to watch the fourth hour of the Today Show. Godspeed, Andrew and his fellow Western Additionites. more ›

In a press conference yesterday afternoon, Mayor Lee called Monday night's power outage at Candlestick Park "a national embarrassment." This is, of course, the same Mayor Lee who once called PG&E "a great company that gets it". Unfortunately, PG&E still doesn't seem to get how their lines could be responsible for the outage that put tens of thousands of football fans in the dark and delayed a nationally televised football game. more ›

Although PG&E admitted last night's power outage at Candlestick Park was due to an exploding transformer, the historically volatile power company doesn't want to take the fall for the incident. As a utility company spokesman told the Chronicle a PG&E power line "lost power for an unknown reason" just before the first outage at 5:19 p.m. last night, but the actual problem occurred when a city-owned transfer switch failed to keep a constant flow of electricity. So, let's recap: more ›

According to PG&E, strong winds will hit the Bay Area over the next two days. This could result in power outages and ruined hairdos. "The utility is anticipating some power outages if the wind storm produces the 60 mph gusts that weather forecasters are predicting," PG&E spokeswoman Tamar Sarkissian told BCN. more ›

So says PG&E via their twitter feed just before 3 p.m. Friday afternoon. PG&E doesn't yet have an estimate for when the power will be back on, so if you were looking forward to heading home to the neighborhood, microwaving a hot pocket and firing up your TiVo, might we suggest alternate plans for the evening? No word yet on what is causing the outage, but we'll update when we know more. more ›

This morning rain - feel it on your fingertips, hear it on the windowpane - has caused minor power outages in the Bay Area. In the North Bay an estimated 1,500 residents are without power, 30 in the East Bay, and 2,300 down in the South Bay. Now outages in San Francisco have been reported. Not yet, anyway. more ›

Do you know what airy expressions of love will get you? Powerlessness. Take, for example, what happened in Concord today. "A stray Valentine’s Day balloon drifted into power lines in Concord Monday morning, causing an outage that affected 1,775 customers, reports CBS 5. "The Mylar balloon hit the power lines at 8:15 a.m., knocking down one wire." more ›

Speaking of explosions, two manhole covers exploded Friday morning in San Francisco's Financial District. CBS 5 notes: "Reports indicated two manholes exploded near the area of Sutter and Montgomery Streets around 7:30 a.m. Smoke was reportedly coming from the manholes, and a power outage was reported in the area." A reason for the exploding manholes has yet to be determined. more ›

"Traffic signals are out due to power outage in the Broderick / Post Street area. To avoid traffic congestion, avoid the area until 1 p.m.," alerts AlertSF. So, there you have it. more ›

At around 5:45 a.m. this morning, "a power outage left a portion of the Bay Bridge and a swath of San Francisco's South of Market District in the dark early this morning." It seems, according to BCN (via SF Appeal), "a section of underground cable failed near the intersection of Second and Harrison streets." (SFist HQ, thank God, was left unscathed.) While most of the power has since been restored, the Bay Bridge is still sans electricity. more ›

We're getting reports this evening that there's a subway power outage in San Francisco, resulting in Muni metro lines being "totally dead." more ›

According to Emergency_In_SF, "Power is sill out to 5,300+ customers in Mission & Noe Districts, Diamond Heights and Upper Market..." Most harrowing of all, SFist Deborah almost missed out on her Monday grocery shopping. She reports, "The power went out at Tower Market. We paid in cash as the computers went out right when we saw the total. Everyone else left empty-handed." more ›

A power outage brought the world as we know it to a halt today in the SOMA / LORI neighborhood, most egregiously affecting SFIst HQ. (Damn you to hell again, PG&E.) From what we can tell, power along Third Street from Townsend up to Harrison is sans electricity as of 1:15 p.m.. For those of you who need electricity and a wireless connection in the hood, we recommend going to Epicenter Cafe at 764 Harrison, between Third and Fourth streets. They have wifi, power, passersby AND great coffee. UPDATE: Power had been restored. Please leaved 21 Amendment and South Park, and return to your offices at once. more ›

Western Addition and Laurel Village neighborhoods are currently without power. According to reports, "an underground cable between Geary and Baker that shorted out around 12:40, leaving 1,249 customers in the WE and Laurel Village areas sans power." Initial reports claim that a transformer blew and manholes popped out of their sockets. (Psst, we highly recommend following Emergency_in_SF for updates on SF crises and drama.) PG&E is working on it. No word yet on when power will be restored, so you'll want to steer clear from Geary in the Western Addition today, which is down to one lane as of 3:30 p.m. more ›

A power outage has affected the Hayward-Fremont Bart line. Hayward, South Hayward, Union City, and Fremont are all feeling the powerlessness, and Bart is "currently working on setting up a bus bridge." more ›

Oh, the joys of electricity. We in our satellite Sunnyside SFist office had been without it since 8:43 this morning. Power was finally restored at 4:20 (hot!). We immediately plugged in our computer and iPhone and powered up. We couldn't believe all that we missed today! Britney losing her kids, Brazil losing some alligators, Gay tax breaks - wow! more ›

As the last night of Hanukkah approaches, we would like to take this opportunity to reflect on this past week's Jewy events and provide a few tidbits of what we shiksas have learned from this year's celebration. more ›

Here's todays news more ›

Official friend of SFist Irene McGee-- ex dj at Free FM (KIFR 106.9) and, yes, "Real World" alum and recipient of "the Slap Heard 'Round the World"-- is having a benefit tonight at the Red Devil lounge to raise money for her after she lost pretty much everything (including one of her cats) in a fire. To help her raise money, she has some fairly heavy weights to help her out-- Exene Cervenka formerly of X and Ben Fong-Torres and Kitten on the Keys will be your emcee for the night. Show starts at 8 and tickets are $15. more ›

That power outage at SFO yesterday was from a switch failure, not PG&E. PG&E, though, still has to take the blame for that explosion in Chinatown yesterday too. more ›

-There was a power outage at SFO last night for about an hour. -And there was an explosion somewhere underground in Chinatown that led to evacuations. Nobody was hurt but the area reeked of gas. more ›

-The high rate of African American being arrested in San Francisco make some call for an inquiry. -Matier and Ross say Gavin's Chief of Staff, Steve Kawa, left due to burnout. We had "intern problem" in the office pool. more ›

Doh! A man trying to rob a local Oakland liquor store accidentally shot himself in the leg during the robbery, and died later from his injuries. The robber had placed the gun on the counter so he could take the money, but when putting the gun back into his waistband, accidentally fired. The whole sad scene was caught on a security camera, where we're sure it'll end up on America's Most Unfortunate Home Videos soon. more ›

Tough few days in SoMa -- the mysterious power outage yesterday and today, a four-alarm fire above the Olympic restaurant at Fifth and Clara that's required the CHP to close down the Fifth Street 101 onramp and close down traffic on Fifth and on Harrison. (What a dramatic way for Eve to start her first day at the Chron, which is just a few blocks down the street! Stop, drop, and roll, Eve!) more ›

We've always wondered what would happen if there was a power outage somewhere in Silicon Valley. Would the stock market crash? Would we not be able to surf porn? Would we no longer be able to download "Buffy" reruns over iTunes? Well, we're about to find out as there's a blackout in one of the hearts of Silicon Valley, that being San Mateo County. more ›

BART was delayed today for more than an hour and a half as once again there was a power outage. This time the outage was caused not by a Temp, but by a BART train traveling from Balboa Park to Daly City striking a piece of metal on the track. No word as to what the piece of metal was or where it was from or whether any motherf------ snakes were involved. more ›

It's gettin'... it's gettin'... it's gettin' kinda hectic. BART was held up this morning for about an hour due to-- drum roll please-- a contractors mistake. Yay!!! We totally had snakes on the train as the cause of the delay in this morning's SFist Office Pool. Anyways, what happened was a contractor (no word yet on whether or not they are now considered to be an "ex-contractor") accidentally punctured a water line and the punctured water line showed up as a power outage on the computer. Et viola, the computer shut down the system thinking there was no power anymore. This all happened around 7:15 this morning and was fixed slightly after 8. BART was still playing catch-up last we heard and the roads were little more traffic laden than normal. See what happens when you hire temps? more ›

Four unrelated shootings in San Francisco over the long Labor Day weekend -- one at 24th and Alabama, one at Turk and Laguna, one at Harrison and 1st, and one in Visitacion Valley near the Cow Palace. Two victims are dead, two are in the hospital. PG&E announced that it figured out why that generator blew the other week underneath the Ralph Lauren store -- water leaked into the transformer, which caused an electrical short, which then blew up oil in the chamber used for insulation. Who uses oil for insulation? (Okay, engineers, enlighten us.) In other news, another transformer blew up on Market Street due to a failed cable splice, there was a power outage near UCSF when a tree blew into some power lines, and another outage in the Outer Mission when a car drove into a pole. And celebrating Labor Day the old-school way, 61 union members were arrested outside the Grand Hyatt at a sit-in over the year-long hotel strike. The union organizers have agreed to end the boycott against the Westin St. Francis because the WSF management has agreed to support several of the union's key demands. more ›