A breaker at an Entergy substation blew Sunday night creating a light show that had some residents panicking in total darkness.

“It looked like bombs going off in the sky,” Adams County Sheriff’s Deputy Keith Miles said.

When the breaker switch failed at approximately 7 p.m. what some described as a ball of flames erupted above the substation located behind Johns-Mansville on Liberty Road.

Electricity immediately shut off on the south side of town from Liberty Road south down Seargent S. Prentiss and in adjacent neighborhoods. Natchez Police directed traffic at highway intersections.

Entergy Customer Service Representative Stephen Caruthers said approximately 2,500 customers were affected.

The Natchez Fire Department, local law enforcement agencies and Entergy representatives responded to the substation within minutes. The fire burned itself out.

The outage knocked out three feeder stations, Caruthers said, forcing Entergy workers to reroute those lines. Portions of the substation sustained burns from the fire.

As of 9 p.m. Sunday, Caruthers said all customers were expected to have power by 11 p.m., but assessing the main problem might take a few days.

“We have no idea what caused the outage,” he said.

Workers arriving today will work to determine the cause and repair the damaged breakers.

Caruthers was leaving church near Liberty Road when the explosion occurred.

“The sky was just lighting up with blue,” he said. “I couldn’t say exactly what causes that, but there are a lot of volts coming in there.”

Officials on the scene Sunday night prepared for more problems as they worked, and sparks erupted once.

Walter Beesley, who lives on Lindberg Avenue, was home when the explosion occurred.

“We saw a big flash that lit up the world and then about a million cars go by,” he said. “A fire started that seemed like it lasted for about five minutes.”

Barbara Ogden of Mansfield Drive was washing clothes when she heard a strange buzzing sound.

“The windows were just vibrating, and I walked outside and looked and saw an electric blue light and sparks everywhere,” she said.

Adams County Sheriff’s Deputy Jody Waldrop reported to the scene after seeing the explosion from his home nearby.

“It was a scary feeling at first, until we realized what was going on,” he said. “The whole horizon lit up.”

Some residents reported seeing something falling from the sky, and Waldrop said he’d received several calls asking if some sort of aircraft had crashed.

Wesley Steckler contributed to this report.