The major power outage in East Bay on Sunday afternoon has affected more than 50,000 customers and has even shut down the Oakland International Airport for a time.
According to officials with PG&E and the Oakland Fire Department, a fire at a PG&E substation transformer caused the outage.
The OFD is on the scene near the intersection of 50th Avenue and Coliseum Way.
OFD Battalion Chief James Bowron says OFD received a report about brown smoke and flames seen inside the PG&E years. Fire crews then found a transformer on fire on the site.
The fire was out by 4 p.m.
Due to the outage, BART lost service to the Oakland Airport Connector at this time.
Airport officials said the Oakland International Airport lost power before 1 p.m.
PG&E shared a statement on the incident.
“The safety of our customers and employees is our most important responsibility. We are aware of the large outage in the Oakland area impacting approximately 50,000 customers. We are currently investigating the details, and will provide more information on the timing of restoration once we have more information.”
