Power was knocked out to thousands of customers Monday night and Pacific Power says they may not have it fully restored until 9 p.m Tuesday Crews said the outage was caused by a utility fire. Around 6 p.m., Portland Fire & Rescue said they responded to multiple reports of smoke coming from underground grates in northwest Portland roadways, mostly in the Northwest Park blocks area. Crews said burning material was visible from the street when looking down through the grates. Firefighters tracked the problem to an electrical vault fire. An electrical vault is an underground room providing access to utility equipment.