'I can’t live like this': Fire alarm blaring for over a week has Florida residents on edge

OCALA, Fla. - Several residents in Ocala, Florida are frustrated over a fire alarm that they say has been incessantly blaring for more than a week.

Since October 16, Felita Wilson said a sprinkler fire alarm mounted outside her living room wall has been sounding 24 hours a day.

"It’s loud, it’s irritating, and I shouldn’t have to live like this; no one should," Wilson said. "I have no peace. I have to go to sleep with those little earplugs in my ears; they don’t stay in place. I’m waking up throughout the night because of the noise."

Wilson said she has had enough. Although her lease doesn’t end until December, she said she is packing up and moving out of the apartment she’s lived in since January.

"I have no choice; I can’t live like this," Wilson said. "I’m a good tenant. I pay my rent on time every month. I’m not a troublemaker, I don’t cause any problems, I get along with my neighbors, and I don’t understand why this is a problem that has gone on this long."

Sleep-deprived and fighting off an eight-day-long headache, Wilson said she has emailed, called, and left messages with the property’s management company, yet the problem persists.

"I was told that they’re waiting on an estimate," Wilson said. "I don’t know what that means, I don’t know how to interpret that."

According to Wilson and other neighbors, it is not the first time the sprinkler fire alarm has gone haywire. Al Sevelino said it has happened several times since he’s lived there.

"The worst part about it is, I think, you kind of get used to it, which is not good at all," Sevelino said.

Sevelino said he has seen multiple firefighters and police officers looking at the alarm but said they’re never able to disable it. If Sevelino lived any closer to the alarm, he said he would likely take matters into his own hands.

"I would have broken it already," Sevelino said. "I would have probably taken a bat to it!"

FOX 35 News reached out to Jacksonville-based Suncoast Property Management, LLC. Our calls were not returned. We also called the number on the alarm system itself. The number for Savage Fire Protection, Inc. appears non-operational.

A spokesperson for Marion County Fire Department confirmed they have responded to the property twice in the last week: once for the alarm alert, and a second time after a resident complained.

Unable to do anything about the alarm, a Marion County Fire spokesperson said the landlord told them they’ve hired a company to look into it.

If the alarm continues to be a nuisance, the fire marshal does have the authority to step in and fine the property management company.