Another power outage in SF's Richmond District has residents, businesses losing faith in PG&E

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Another power failure was reported in San Francisco's Richmond District on Friday afternoon, days after PG&E apologized for repeated outages in the neighborhood on the western end of the city.

The latest outage affected about 3,400 customers in the Richmond District and Seacliff neighborhoods, PG&E spokesperson Andria Borba said. The blackout started around 3:30 p.m. Friday and was restored just before 5 p.m.

It was the latest to leave scores of San Franciscans without electricity.

The Richmond District has seen a number of outages recently following a Dec. 20 fire at a PG&E substation. In the past week, there was an overhead equipment failure on Sunday, and on Wednesday, another outage in the area left roughly 3,600 customers without power for hours.

These power outages are really wearing on a lot of business owners and residents. They tell ABC7 News that the outages seem like they're happening over and over again.

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"You could see the top of the entire thing burning," said Anthony Voght.

He captured video Sunday night of a power pole on fire in front of his home.

"I was actually under it on Sunday night when it started sparking, and the whole entire thing at the top went off like a giant roman candle," Voght said.

He said power was out for three hours. He and his wife moved to a hotel to be closer to work.

"I don't think we have too much confidence in PG&E anymore," Voght said.

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All day Thursday crews were on his street making repairs.

Before the next storm moved in Friday night, PG&E issued this statement saying: "PG&E is prepared for this storm. Information from our outage prediction model helps us determine staffing levels needed for quick, efficient, and safe power restoration."

PG&E has positioned additional crews where storm impact is expected to be most severe.

Still, some residents and business owners say they're concerned about future outages.

"I'm sure it's going to happen again," said Allison Williams, a Richmond District resident. "I have headlamps now and battery-operated light sources. I have all sorts of safety things around our house."

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David Chien, the owner of Sushi Bistro, lost as much as $10,000 in fresh seafood during the Dec. 20 outage.

"We went without power for a full two days," Chien said.

After the fire at a PG&E substation knocked out power for thousands of residents in the Richmond area, Chien said he's taking matters into his own hands.

"We are in the process of getting a generator and trying to have a backup system in place. Because in this place, it's very hard to rely on PG&E to offer power for us," Chien said. "It's not if, but when it happens again."

Bay City News contributed to this report.