The alarm at the Buckingham Road multi-storey car park, in Worthing, began sounding at around midnight last night, according to Jessie Hubbard, who lives nearby.
It was not turned off until 9am this morning.
Someone came out in the early hours to switch it off, but the alarm quickly began ringing again when they had left.
Jessie was among those attempting to contact authorities to get the alarm switched off.
@hubbardcupboard #worthing ♬ original sound – Jessie Hubbard328
She said: “The fire alarm was ringing all night, it was ridiculous. I had really broken sleep.
“I joined other neighbours who had gathered outside this morning, trying to do something. We rang all the numbers on the display and got no response.”
Jessie said she had to “harass” the council and its environmental health team with calls, and leave innumerable text and recorded messages to the number displayed at the car park, before anybody came out.
She also called the police non-emergency number, due to some neighbours becoming “distressed” by the sound, who put her in contact with the fire brigade.
She also shared a series of videos on TikTok, with one showing her at the entrance of the car park next to a traffic cone early on Sunday morning.
In the video, she said: “Morning Worthing Council. Me about five other neighbours are standing outside your Buckingham multi-storey. As you can hear from the background your so-called fire alarm has been going off all night.
“We have been trying your environmental health number, your out-of-hours number, the police, the fire service and no-one has got back to us.
“So for as long as no-one’s here, we’ll be sitting here in the entrance and turning people away.”
She said they warned a few drivers about the situation, some of whom decided to park there anyway, and some of whom turned away.
Fire vehicles were later seen attending the car park, although the alarm had since been switched off.
She added: “Nine hours this alarm had been going off for. There are not only residential properties nearby, but also businesses.
“A lady who was staying at a hotel on the seafront came to collect her car and said she could hear it.”
Jessie highlighted the waste of resources and called for the council to ensure a similar incident does not happen again.
“It’s a really bad look on the council. I hope when they hear how annoyed we are, this won’t happen again.”
Worthing Borough Council have been contacted for comment.
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