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FBI SAYS SAN FRANCISCO BLACKOUT WAS SABOTAGE
Blackout October 24, 1997 Web posted at: 10:10 p.m. EDT (0210 GMT)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Utility officials increased security at power stations around San Francisco on Friday after FBI investigators said someone intentionally cut power to the city's downtown.
"It was a deliberate act," said FBI spokesman George Grotz. "It was not an accident, and it was not a computer intrusion."
Robert Glynn Jr., president and chief executive officer of Pacific Gas & Electric Co, declined to comment on whether authorities believe it was an inside job.
Grotz said there was no sign of forced entry into the locked city substation, and agents are looking at records of about 75 employees who had access to the building. Sabotage of an electrical facility is a federal offense.
FBI agents examined the switches and dusted the equipment for fingerprints, Grotz said.
The switches in the substation were toggled in such a way as to maximize the power outage. The saboteur had cut power coming into and out of the station, Grotz said.
The effect was that a bank of transformers failed around 6:15 a.m. Thursday, blacking out electricity to 126,000 customers -- about 250,000 people -- in a five-mile, mid-city stretch from the Marina to the Sunset districts for 90 minutes or more.
The blackout stopped elevators and alarm clocks, knocked out traffic signals and left commuters shouting and honking their horns in frustration.
Police spokesman Sherman Ackerson said the department held over its midnight shift and put 450 police and parking patrol officers on the streets to ease traffic headaches.
Entire neighborhoods lacked public transit because much of the city's bus system runs on electricity. Bay Area Rapid Transit trains kept running, but two stations went dark and briefly closed.
The city was back to normal Friday morning, with traffic and omnipresent coffee machines humming as usual -- a far cry from Thursday's chaos, said Joshua Larsen of the Coffee Roastery, a bean's throw from San Francisco's famous Powell Street cable car turnaround.
He had just arrived for work and was preparing the morning coffee when everything stopped.
"Right in the middle of grinding coffee -- it was a blend of Kenya and French roast -- the power stopped cold," Larsen said.
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