The fire chief in West Sussex, England admits being embarrassed when a fire station in his district without a smoke alarm was engulfed in flames.

The Arundel Fire Station in West Sussex, east of England, caught fire. The building and a fire engine was destroyed in the blaze which lasted for several hours.

Neil Odin, southern area commander for West Sussex fire service told the BBC, "Unfortunately, we had severe damage to our fire station, which is embarrassing."

He said it showed it could happen to anyone and adds that they would be needing a new building with a smoke alarm.

But he adds, "Automatic smoke detection wouldn't have made any difference."

Fire engines from neighboring towns responded to the fire. Fortunately, nobody was injured during the incident which was tackled by 30 firefighters in six fire engines.

None of the firefighters were at the building at the time of the fire.