A power outage and generator fire caused thousands of Baltimore City cable TV subscribers to lose service over the weekend, a United Artists Cable spokeswoman said yesterday.

The loss of service affected residents west of the Jones Falls Expressway, in seven different zip code areas, with cable down for several hours on Sunday.

The problem started on Saturday with a Baltimore Gas and Electric power outage, according to Marilyn Harris-Davis, a spokeswoman for the cable company. Because of the outage, UA backup generators were used to maintain the system. When another outage hit Sunday, the generators were again put into use. According to Ms. Harris-Davis, one of the generators caught fire shortly thereafter, causing the cable system to shut down on the west side of the city.

The system is back up, but repairs were still under way yesterday at the United Cable facility at Baltimore and Franklin streets.