A lunchtime power outage knocked out electricity to 2,400 customers in Lawrence, including five public schools.

A switch failure at 12:08 p.m. Thursday triggered the outage, which blacked out homes, businesses and schools in an area generally bordered by 19th, Iowa, 31st and Louisiana streets, said Gina Penzig, a spokeswoman for Westar Energy in Topeka.

Most of the affected customers had their power restored by 12:24 p.m., she said, but “one or two” still were waiting for electricity as of 1:30 p.m.

The outage struck Lawrence High School, South Junior High School and Broken Arrow, Centennial and Schwegler schools, said Julie Boyle, a spokeswoman for the Lawrence school district.

The blackout forced a brief evacuation of students at Centennial, after a smell of smoke eminated from a piece of equipment on the school’s roof and seeped into halls and classrooms.

Students gathered on the playground for a few minutes as the school aired out, Boyle said, then were returned to their classrooms.

“There wasn’t any visible smoke, but there was the smell of smoke,” Boyle said. “The smell is gone and they’re back to school.”

No problems were reported at the other four school left in the dark.

“They don’t have lights, they don’t have copy machines and they don’t have fax machines, but they can still be in school,” Boyle said.

For more on this story, see the 6News reports at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Sunflower Broadband’s cable Channel 6 and pick up a copy of Friday’s Journal-World.