Stores in the Natchez Mall closed for almost an hour Wednesday while fire department and Entergy crews searched for the source of a small amount of smoke spotted coming from a Bookland air vent.

Armetric Stump, mall security officer, said mall management had no reason to believe mall patrons were in immediate danger, but stores were forced to close their doors until the power outage that accompanied the smoke report could be resolved.

Several mall-goers chose to wait out the store closings and milled around the mall’s center court while fire crews and mall security checked fuse boxes and air conditioning vents by flashlight.

Mall manager Art Fesmire said he initially suspected the air conditioning system may have overheated in the warm weather and notified Entergy. It did not take long for Natchez Fire Department firefighters to declare the stores free from fire, but it was several minutes before power was restored.

It was the second outage this week at the mall; stores were without power for more than two hours Sunday.

Terry Perkins, J.C. Penney manager, said Sunday’s power failure took a big bite out of Fourth of July sales. He said business is normally slow on Sundays until mid-afternoon, when the majority of customers come into the store. At that pivotal time, around 3:30 p.m., the power went out.

&uot;I lost a ton of money Sunday,&uot; Perkins said. &uot; I missed the best part of the day.&uot;

When the problem occurred again Wednesday, Perkins said he was &uot;aggravated.&uot; &uot;As a retail merchant, once you have to run customers out of your store, they don’t stick around. They go home or go to a store that has power,&uot; he said.

Bobby Duncan, Entergy network manager, said power company crews found a &uot;bad run&uot; of underground line just outside the rear of the mall, near J.C. Penney.

Duncan said the damaged line will be replaced by the end of the week, but until then, the full power load for the mall had been placed on one &uot;feed,&uot; when it normally runs off two. The smoke and power failure could have been the result of overloaded fuses, Duncan said.

&uot;It’s no problem to leave it as is (running off one feed), but if the load exceeds the fuses, we’ll up the fuses,&uot; he said.

The underground lines that supply the mall’s electricity are almost 20 years old, but Duncan said Entergy had the lines &uot;gel-pumped&uot; a few months ago. The process, which fills in any cracks or tears in the line, claims to prolong the life of cables 20 years.