Auckland airport shut down : Thousands without power after mass blackout

A mas­sive pow­er out­age caused by a fire at a Pacif­ic Gas & Elec­tric sub­sta­tion left more than 50,000 Auck­lan­ders with­out elec­tric­i­ty for sev­er­al hours and dis­rupt­ed ser­vices at the city’s airport.

Accord­ing to the com­pa­ny’s black­out map, the black­out began before 1pm and as of 8:30pm, 8,526 cus­tomers were still out of pow­er. The com­pa­ny esti­mates that full ser­vice will be restored by ear­ly Mon­day morning.

The Oak­land Fire Depart­ment said the out­age was caused by a fire at a pow­er sub­sta­tion near 50th Avenue and Col­i­se­um Way. The cause of the fire is unknown.

PG&E spokes­woman Tamar Sarkiss­ian tweet­ed at 7 p.m.: “We are work­ing safe­ly and as quick­ly as pos­si­ble to restore pow­er to cus­tomers who do not yet have it.”

The black­out affect­ed Auck­land Inter­na­tion­al Air­port for at least two hours, with trav­el­ers com­plain­ing of flight delays and secu­ri­ty con­ges­tion, local media report­ed. Pow­er was restored at the air­port at 2:20 p.m., accord­ing to NBC Bay Area.

The CBS Bay Area report­ed that the pow­er out­age also affect­ed parts of Alame­da, dis­abling three draw­bridges and dis­rupt­ing access to the island.

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