"The cable was fixed and the job was completed the day after the cable failure," Bonnie Sheppard, PSE&G spokeswoman said.

Main Street was closed for several hours April 21 after the incident occurred. The Fort Lee Fire Department evacuated every building on Main Street from Lemoine Avenue to Center Avenue and aired out the basements with fans to bring down the carbon monoxide levels.

"A transformer under the post office exploded causing power lines that ran under Main Street to burn," said Jeff Bernard, chief of the Fort Lee Fire Department. "The burning caused carbon monoxide to leak into all the buildings. Readings were elevated to more than 1,000 parts per million, which is hazardous."

Bernard believes the cause of the transformer failure was linked to a power line going down in Constitution Park. Minutes later, the explosion strained the system and started an underground fire. No one was hurt in the process.

"PSE&G cut power on both ends and the fire put itself out," Bernard said.

Bonnie Sheppard, spokesperson for PSEG said. "The outage was caused by a failed underground secondary cable. It was not an explosion; rather, in addition to smoke, there were sparks seen and noise, probably from arching."

The police reported the incident to PSE&G. Everyone was allowed back into their businesses and homes at approximately 7:30 p.m. Crews worked overnight to replace the damaged cable, and all customers were restored the next morning.

"The concerns were due to high carbon monoxide levels, an odorless gas that can cause dizziness or other symptoms. We do not anticipate further problems," Sheppard said.

Although carbon monoxide posed the greatest danger, due to its odorless and colorless qualities, no state law requires businesses to have carbon monoxide detectors. But some business owners and employees did hear a loud noise and smell gas.

"We heard the explosion. It wasn’t loud but it sounded deep," Fatmir Kodra, co-owner of Baggio’s Restaurant said. "The lights went off and on and we smelled gas in the basement."

Other businesses were completely unaware of the incident untill the firemen asked them to evacuate.

"We didn’t hear anything," Kyung Kim, manager of D.Ari restaurant said. "When they asked us to go outside, we saw fire trucks and four helicopters overhead."

After the fire department informed Kim it was safe to go back in, "I personally checked the basement to make sure everything was OK."

Some businesses had to switch gears inorder to continue servicing their customers.

"PSE&G asked us to close the store and I had to take my customer home to finish the color treatment in her hair," Reina Delcid, hair stylist at Zoraida’s Beauty Center said.