There is no smoke without fire, or so the saying goes.

For one musical troupe, there was only the whiff of irony.

The cast of Junior Musicality was caught by surprise when it was halted mid-song by a fire alarm on Saturday.

It was singing We Didn’t Start The Fire by Billy Joel in Crawley’s Hawth Studio when the siren sounded.

Thankfully it was a false alarm and the show went on half an hour later.

Director Nicci Hopson said: “In the middle of the live show the show was stopped. We thought it was a joke when the alarm went off. It was quite ironic.”

Her husband, Neil Hopson, was manning the lights.

He said: “It is quite funny that the song was playing at the same time.”

An audience in the main stage theatre watching One Man, Two Guvnors was also evacuated for about an hour until the all-clear was given.