Police say staff being relocated after Auckland central police station damaged in fire overnight

Fifteen fire engines attended the blaze last night. Photograph / Sam Sword

Staff will have to be relocated after a fire at Auckland Central Police Station caused extensive damage in an office area last night.

A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokeswoman said a scene examination has been completed at the station on Hobson St and the fire service is confident the fire was caused by an electrical fault.

Police are no longer treating it as suspicious.

It was initially reported that the fire was suspicious when it appeared multiple fires had been started, however this was confirmed to be a result of fire dropping from the ceiling on to several spots on the ground.

Auckland City District Commander Superintendent Karyn Malthus said police were alerted at 11pm to a fire in the ground floor of the station.

Fire and Emergency were alerted by an automatic alarm at 11.05pm, and arrived on scene by 11.06pm with 15 fire engines attending the blaze.

Emergency crews came from around the region including Avondale, North Shore and Onehunga.

Malthus said the building was evacuated with no operable police cells in the station.

At one stage smoke could be seen billowing from the building.

A Fire and Emergency spokesperson said the fire was "significantly scaled back" by 2am and contained to the office area.

Fire response continued to monitor throughout the night, with one fire engine still on site this morning.

One firefighter sustained a minor injury after pulling a calf muscle. They were taken to hospital as a precaution and released shortly after.

The main station is unaffected and continuing policing business as normal.

The area where the fire started was previously a gym but is now an office area.