While many locals enjoyed the spontaneous holiday deemed ?Belco Fire Day? at one popular Front Street watering hole, a number of Hamilton businesses pulled out their flashlights for locals in need of supplies and cruise ship tourists desperate to buy souvenirs before they departed.

Keith DeSilva, who runs Keith?s Kitchen at Bermuda Athletic Association, arrived at his lunch truck at his usual time of 5.30 a.m., but was not able to get cooking until a friend dropped a generator by three hours later.

Demand for food, coffee and other refreshments boomed all day long as ?no one else is open so we are doing the best we can to serve everybody else?s customers,? he said.

Caf? Latte opened for a few hours and had brewed nine pots of coffee by the time swung by at 9 a.m.

?We are just trying to keep everybody going and happy,? said Alfred Eve, the proprietor. ?We have vanilla nut and Jamaican Blue Mountain ? we need coffee at times like this.?

Casey?s Bar and Lounge and The Beach on Front Street were dark inside, but both bars ? the only two to open in town ? had good crowds from 10 a.m.

?I got ice and the guys are drinking fast,? said Casey?s owner Gladwin Phillips.

?We have parties no matter what. It?s a lights out party.?

Down the road, the crowd at The Beach spilled onto the sidewalk as they sucked back cold beverages, barbecued chicken, burgers and hotdogs.

Owner Rick Olson said he opened because ?he was thirsty? and the ?staff showed up and had to do something?.

?We always have hurricane parties and we always open for stuff like this. If you can?t work, you may as well relax and enjoy yourself and make the best of it,? he said.

A stroll along Queen, Reid and Church Streets was somewhat eerie as the scene was far from the norm. Parking spaces were plentiful. Police directed what little traffic there was and there was barely a pulse at the centre of Bermudian life.

Kristi Grayston, co-chair of the Chamber of Commerce Retail Division and owner of Pulp and Circumstance, did not open yesterday since her customers are mostly local.

She said while there is no good day for such a closure, of all the days of the week, Thursday is ?probably not the worst? since the cruise ship passengers depart by lunchtime.

Every closed day however ?is a hit in the pocketbook for retailers?.

?We are not insured for something like this and we really are the only industry in Bermuda that has no protection from Government for things like this so we get no breaks,? she complained.

?Our staff will be fully compensated as they should be and they all get a well-deserved break, but retail is not an easy industry. You do it because you love it, not because you try to make money and a day like today is a shame but there is nothing you can do.?

Charles Gosling said all three of his stores opened at the beginning of the day and ensured that duty-free packages made it to the cruise ships.

While the St. George?s store got power early in the day, the company ended up closing its Hamilton and Somerset branches.

?All three opened but it quickly became apparent with Hamilton and Somerset that it didn?t make sense. We had called our major customers to make sure they were okay but it didn?t make sense to stay open because our computer system was down and everything else.?

A dozen or so Triminghams? managers chatted outside the Reid Street doors before bidding each other goodbye.

?We just came in to let staff know we?re closed and we?ll wait and see about tomorrow,? explained manager Roberta Clarke.

?I don?t know what?s going to happen tomorrow. The whole town is out.?

Then like so many others, she too was gone ? headed for a swim, she said.

Marks and Spencer general manager Paul Dean also kept his doors closed, as did president and chief executive of Phoenix Stores George Grundmuller.

?We can?t open right now because of the electricity situation. All our registers are powered from electricity so we?ve kept our staff on standby. As soon as the electricity comes on they will come back to work and we will open as soon as possible,? said Mr. Grundmuller, adding that perishable items like ice cream would have to be disposed of if power was not up and running soon.

Uncannily, the well-known tourist train bustled through town as if oblivious to the mid-week disruption. Visitors were probably curious about where everyone had disappeared to ? especially since it was not a national holiday.

There was no holiday, however, at The Olympic Club with people turning up at 6 a.m, according to manager Bertha Griffin.

?We had a few people who actually did work out in the dark and we had a few in to get showers and used what was left in the pipes.?

Olympic Club manager Antoine Kent was amazed people turned up to do a spin class even though there was no electricity.

Queen Street Liquors was also doing steady business for people looking for ?cold drinks and cigarettes?.

Laquita Rocher planned to keep the store open ?as long as the drinks stay cold?.

Rental scooters were still on the offing at Wheels while Electronic City was selling plenty of batteries, cordless phones and battery-operated radios.

Souvenir shops were by far the busiest traders. Most planned to close after the lunchtime cruise ship departures.

Philadelphia visitor Dennis Pharo and his family were among the many buying T-shirts in the dark at Rhiluoma?s Flying Colours.

?The Horizon is leaving at 1 p.m. and we weren?t planning on the power being out,? he said.

While cash was preferable, some retailers also opted to simply write down credit card details on paper or imprint cards with hopes that transactions would be approved once the power came back on.

The Island Shop?s Mia Finsness said that while the day had not been as busy as a normal Thursday, she was surprised by how many customers had been in.

At The Bermuda Bookstore a sign declared: ?You don?t need electricity to read a book.?

Manager Hannah Willmott said electricity or not her store would hold its Harry Potter party tonight with the latest J.K. Rowling book on sale at midnight.

E.R. Aubrey offered a light?s-out sale with all merchandise discounted 40 percent. Store manager Kelly Cohen said they opened during floods so why not open in a power outage.

?People have been coming in last minute because no one else is open,? she said.