Ice buildup on an insulator left thousands of Auburn area residents without power for a short time Wednesday morning.

The outage originated at the substation on Wright Avenue at 10:50 a.m. and affected the substation on State Street, said Barb Murdoch, a spokeswoman for New York State Electric & Gas.

Residents were left without power for about five minutes. Bob Pass, regional community outreach and development manager, said crews were working around the clock on outages in other parts of the state.

In an event related to the outage, a power surge had Auburn firefighters searching for the source of an electrical odor at a doctor's office at 75 Genesee St.

Fire Chief Mike Hammon said a call was sent to the fire station shortly after power was restored when someone noticed an burnt electrical odor.

There was no fire but the source of the odor turned out to be an electrical apparatus on a fish tank that got overloaded during the power surge.

Hammon said it was not uncommon for there to be power surges when power is restored after an outage.