Arson confirmed as cause of school blaze

The fire at Fairfield Intermediate in Hamilton badly damaged the school's two-storey technology centre. Photo / Christine Cornege

A fire which gutted parts of a Hamilton school, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage and leaving its pupils without a technology centre, was an arson, the Fire Service says.

Tuesday's blaze badly damaged not only the two-storey centre but also a classroom and two storerooms.

Firefighters were called to the school at 6.45pm after a nearby householder spotted the flames.

Yesterday, Fire Safety Officer Dave Jenkins confirmed that the blaze was "anything but suspicious".

He could not go into detail about how it was lit, because the Hamilton CIB was now investigating, but said that an accelerant had not been used.

He said the Fire Service had eliminated the power source and "everything else" as possible causes of the blaze.

"There was no other conclusion than it was anything but suspicious."

Mr Jenkins said the fire started in a caretaker's room before it gutted the roof space of the two-storey block and spread along the first-floor ceiling.

It then fanned out through the shared roof space into the rest of the block, which includes a computer suite, technology workshop, food tech rooms and a design workshop.

The Waikato Times reported that a witness saw a group of boys running from the school as firefighters arrived.

Fairfield Intermediate deputy principal Angela Walters got a call telling her the technology centre was ablaze just after she arrived home from a whanau hui in the school's whare nui.

She returned to the school, where staff and local residents were watching more than 30 Fire Service staff from eight trucks fight the flames.

"It's just a shame, you know," Ms Walters said yesterday. "Obviously, insurance will cover the buildings and so on but this was really upsetting.

"I think there's a feeling pretty much of shock, disbelief and even anger.

"It's kind of surreal - there were a big group of us here watching it unfold."