Balloon causes 7600 PG&E customers to lose power in SF's North Beach, Russian Hill neighborhoods - San Francisco Chronicle

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A balloon came into contact with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. equipment Tuesday morning and caused 7,600 customers in San Francisco’s North Beach and Russian Hill neighborhoods to lose power, company officials said.

The outage, which occurred shortly before 11 a.m., was mostly focused in the area of Columbus and Greenwich streets, according to a PG&E map of power failures. All customers’ power had been restored as of 11:52 a.m., officials said.

A mylar balloon, which are often given out as presents on birthdays and celebrations, came into contact with PG&E equipment to cause the outage, said Jennifer Robinson, a company spokeswoman.

“This is an opportune time to remind all of our customers of the dangers of mylar or metallic balloons, which have a silvery coating that conducts electricity,” she said. “If these balloons make contact with our equipment, they can short transformers, melt electric wires and cause power outages, all of which pose public safety risks.”

Mylar balloons caused 94 PG&E power outages through the first four months of this year, officials said. The outages disrupted electric service to more than 44,000 homes and businesses.