By Howard Schneider
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 8:43 AM

An underground electrical fire left as many as 5,000 D.C. homes and businesses without power for several hours overnight as utility crews rerouted electricity around damaged lines linked to the downtown grid.

The fire broke out around 11 p.m. in an underground electrical junction on 14th Street NW near Clifton Street NW., said Pepco spokeswoman Mary-Beth Hutchinson.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but Hutchinson said it apparently started with a neighborhood feeder line that carried power to several dozen customers in the Columbia Heights neighborhood.

However, the blaze also damaged several parallel lines running through the same manhole, and Hutchinson said crews had to shut down power to a larger area between 14th Street NW and Connecticut Avenue as they rerouted the flow of electricity and performed repairs.

By early this morning, electricity had been restored to all but a few powered by the feeder line where the fire originated, Hutchinson said.

Repairs to that line "will be time-consuming," Hutchinson said.