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The Stanford University campus lost power on Tuesday afternoon.
Leah Millis/The Chronicle 2016
A power outage Tuesday afternoon at the Stanford University campus continued Wednesday, apparently the result of the failure of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. equipment during the nearby Edgewood Fire in San Mateo County, according to university officials.
The university canceled classes and day camps scheduled for Wednesday, provided portable light stations to dorms and encouraged staff to work from home if possible. Parking garages were closed overnight due to the dark.
The outage, which also affected a number of other San Mateo County residents, began early Tuesday afternoon.
In a tweet Tuesday, officials said a PG&E transmission line was “reportedly down” and that workers were trying to shift to an alternate line, though they could not anticipate when the outage would end. They warned that if the outage continues, “card access doors may power down and lock automatically.”
University staff scrambled to re-key the main entrance of each student dorm and residence hall “so room or apartment keys will provide access,” officials tweeted.
Smoke plumes from the fire were visible from the campus on Tuesday.
“PG&E has not provided an estimated time of power restoration, due to damage to their equipment located in the fire area near Emerald Hills,” which is the Edgewood Fire region, university officials tweeted Tuesday night.
The College of San Mateo also lost power on Tuesday, prompting the campus to close and cancel all in-person classes. Officials tweeted that the school would reopen on Wednesday.
PG&E spokesperson Mayra Tostado said that at 2:20 p.m. the utility had started receiving reports from San Mateo County customers — including Stanford — saying their power had sputtered. Crews began working with emergency responders to restore power to about 8,900 people, institutions and businesses in parts of Burlingame, Hillsborough, Redwood City, San Carlos, San Mateo and Woodside.
“We are actively looking to connect impacted customers to other sections of our electrical system,” to get their electricity flowing as quickly as possible, Tostado wrote, noting that the cause of the outage was under investigation.
A PG&E alert sent at 1 a.m. to residents on the west side of San Carlos, which was also affected by the outage, estimated that power restoration was expected at noon Wednesday.
Some generators at the university came online late Tuesday afternoon and were able to restore power to critical areas. But many people had lost cell phone service, as well as air conditioning on a scorching day.
Staff at the university opened the Arrillaga Family Dining Commons and EVGR Pavilion to anyone seeking relief from the torrid weather and blackouts, noting that food service would be limited to the Wilbur Dining, Florence Moore and Arrillaga Family Dining Commons.
Chronicle staff writer Emma Talley contributed to this report.
Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
