A transformer caught fire Sunday afternoon at a Pacific Gas & Electric substation in East Oakland, California, cutting power to tens of thousands of people across the East Bay.
About 25 firefighters from the Oakland Fire Department responded at about 1 p.m. to the blaze at a PG&E substation near 50th Avenue and Coliseum Way, near the Oakland Coliseum, according to Michael Hunt, an Oakland fire spokesman.
Fire crews arrived to find brown-gray smoke emanating from the PG&E yard, and once inside, realized that a transformer was burning, said James Bowron, an Oakland fire battalion chief. Once assured that the area was no longer electrified, fire crews managed to use a dry chemical fire extinguishing substance to extinguish the flame. The fire was brought under control about an hour and a half after crews were called to the scene.
Air quality in the region did not approach dangerous levels, and air monitors all came back as negative for toxic substances, Bowron said.
Power was briefly down at the Oakland International Airport, affecting some security checkpoints, and BART Oakland Airport Connector trains were also stopped for a short time. In an e-mailed statement, Port of Oakland spokesman Roberto Bernardo said power was restored by 2:50 p.m. Pacific Time and that no flights were canceled but some Southwest Airlines flights saw delays of up to an hour.
As of 6:30 p.m., about 20,000 PG&E customers remained without power across a broad swath of East Oakland, the Oakland Hills and the city of Alameda where the bridges to the island were impacted. That was down slightly from a peak of about 54,000 customers earlier in the afternoon and 48,000 as of about 6 p.m.
Despite utility crews’ efforts to bring power back as safely and quickly as possible, some customers were expected to be without power for up to 12 hours, or through 6 a.m. Monday, PG&E spokesman James Guidi said in an e-mailed statement Sunday night.
Guidi urged residents to check PG&E’s outage map at PGE.com for restoral estimates.
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