A FIRE alarm blared out for more than eight hours after a council contractor had to travel 70 miles to turn it off.

Confused residents gathered to decipher the commotion as two fire engines arrived in Kebbell Lodge in High Street, Brighton.

The block of 34 flats is run by Brighton and Hove City Council, whose housing contractor Mears is responsible for the alarm.

The alarm was set off at midday on Saturday. An engineer from Allied Protection eventually arrived seven hours later to turn it off, having travelled from Hayes in Middlesex.

Steve Parry, who is retired, was alerted because the alarm went off right outside the door to his flat.

The 65-year-old said: “Can you imagine suffering unbearable and invasive noise due to incompetence for eight hours with no possible end in sight?”

Mr Parry said it was the fourth time the alarm had gone off since it was installed “without any consultation at all” a year ago.

He also lamented the time spent by the fire service having to attend.

He added: “The situation in which residents of High Street found themselves is intolerable but, of greater concern, is that an unnecessary system has been installed that is part of a programme of works that seems to benefit people who are not residents or ratepayers. One of the problems was that residents had no knowledge of Allied Protection, the fire brigade assumed Mears was responsible, Mears personnel kept saying ‘their’ staff were on their way to deal with the issue and councillors had no idea of what was going on.

“This is also an indication of incompetence, as usual, from within the council’s housing department.”

The alarm was eventually switched off at 8.36pm, more than eight-and-a-half hours after activating.

A spokeswoman for East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said it was caused by fumes from an aerosol.

She said: “We certainly don’t have the keys or capabilities to reset alarms.”

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokeswoman said: “We apologise to residents for the distress caused by this fire alarm.

“Originally the call was logged as a smoke alarm, which led to a delay in the fire alarm being attended.

“We’ve highlighted the problem to our out-of-hours manager and we will highlight it in training for the team to ensure residents receive the appropriate response.”