Third of San Francisco Without Power

A third of San Francisco remained without power early Sunday after fire in an electrical substation triggered a massive outage that snarled traffic and forced frenzied holiday shoppers from malls.

The fire broke out just before 6 p.m. Saturday at a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. substation that feeds smaller substations.

Among the neighborhoods losing power included Chinatown, North Beach and downtown, PG&E officials said.

After the substation was reopened, PG&E engineers were able to restore power to about half of the affected customers. The power went off again, however, when the engineers discovered the fire had not been contained and shut down the substation for safety reasons.

It was unclear when power would be restored.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but PG&E spokesman Jonathan Franks said there were no signs of vandalism or sabotage.

Besides sending shoppers home, the outage forced theaters and restaurants to evacuate and close early.

Street lights stopped working, causing back-ups throughout the city.

The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District closed its Powell and Civic Center stations, but trains continued to run as usual, BART officials said.