Peco restores power along Chestnut Street in Old City

More than 200 Peco customers in Old City lost power for nearly 40 minutes Saturday night after an underground cable overheated, a spokesman for the utility said.

Ben Armstrong said the problem caused smoke but the company had no reports of fire. He said 252 customers in the areas of Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Streets along Chestnut Street lost power around 7:25 p.m. and all but two customers regained power at 8:02 p.m.

The outage created confusion on a busy night at Amada, a tapas restaurant owned by Chef Jose Garces.

Amada put a hold on orders and relied on its emergency lighting, which kicked in until power was restored, an Amada employee said.

Armstrong said crews were working to repair the cable Saturday night. - Darran Simon