Some businesses and homes in parts of downtown Vancouver will likely be without power until Tuesday evening, after BC Hydro crews spent Monday night making emergency repairs to underground power lines damaged in a fire.

BC Hydro spokeswoman Susan Danard said workers assessed the damage overnight and preliminary estimates suggest it will be 11 p.m. Tuesday before electricity is restored to some areas.

Traffic in the downtown core was expected to return to normal Tuesday after crews managed to restore all traffic lights - except the one at the intersection of Dunsmuir Street and Burrard Street - by 7 a.m. PT.

Key transit services, including buses, SkyTrain and SeaBuses, were running normally Tuesday morning.

Businesses running on BlackBerrys and cash

In the heart of the financial district on Howe Street, Kennedy Kirk and his colleagues at Contact Financial were enjoying the sunshine and doing business by cellphone from the sidewalk.

"[We are] doing a lot of the BlackBerry thing, and you know, we're going for a coffee, and it's what time, 7:30? Normally we'd be on the phone jamming away right now, so you know, take an easy day if you've got it, right?" said Kirk.

A half block away, the doors of the Vancouver Bullion and Currency Exchange were chained shut, but a generator hummed away as employees inside attempted to get the phones and internet working.

Nearby on the corner of Pender and Richards streets, Nazim Khan, the Al-Madira convenience store manager, spent the morning getting rid of perishable items, as he waited for power to come back on.

"We throw it in the garbage. Hygienic right? For sale, only gum, candy and smokes. No ice cream, no milk," said Khan.

And with no internet access, no credit card reader or debit machine, and no ATM, it was cash only for customers. Khan estimated he'd lost more than $3,000 in business already.

Underground fire caused outage

The power outage was caused by an underground fire and explosion at 9 a.m. Monday that damaged 14 circuits at a BC Hydro substation.

About half of the 2,200 customers in the city's downtown core who lost power Monday were still without power Tuesday at 7 a.m. PT, according to BC Hydro's website.

While temporary repairs will turn the lights back on for most by Tuesday night, removing and permanently replacing the kilometres of melted or damaged wire could take much longer, said Danard.

Police were out in full force overnight, as many downtown buildings were without lights or security systems, but there were no reports of break-ins.