A couple of hundred residents of a Newcastle inner-city unit block ended up on the footpath at 2 o’clock this morning.
Fire and Rescue NSW responded to reports of smoke at the Chifley Apartments on Honeysuckle Drive at about 2am.
It turned out that the automatic fire alarm was triggered by smoke on the fourth floor – everyone was evacuated as a precaution.
Firefighters traced the source of the smoke to a faulty electrical switch within that unit on the fourth floor.
Crews left the scene and residents were allowed back into their units a couple of hours later.