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Police are hunting an arsonist following a fire at Tauranga Boys' College today.
It is the second suspicious fire in the Tauranga area in the last four days that was started in a rubbish bin and seriously damaged a building.
In this morning's fire, firefighters arrived to find flames engulfing the entranceway to the college's art block.
They were forced to don breathing apparatus as the fire spread under the building and to the roof.
"They successfully stopped the fire spreading to the classrooms in the main block," Tauranga senior fire officer Philip Price said.
"It would've been only a matter of minutes before they would've been involved."
Fire safety officer Jon Rewi said the fire had been deliberately lit in a rubbish bin outside the building entrance that was filled with paper, plastic and discarded art materials.
"The fuels were good burning fuels," he said.
Five fire crews were needed to fight the blaze, which took about half an hour to bring under control after the Fire Service was notified at 5.53am.
The foyer of the four-classroom block was destroyed, with lesser damage to the roof and underside of the building.
Paint on an adjacent block was blistered by the fire's heat and a window cracked, but classrooms in the art block suffered only smoke damage and artworks were unaffected.
"We were extraordinarily lucky," Tauranga Boys' principal Graham Young said. "The artwork of our students was just looked after brilliantly."
He said the block would likely be reopened tomorrow and art classes held in other classrooms in the meantime.
A fire crew remained on standby at the school throughout the morning.
Police are investigating the fire and an earlier one at an Indian restaurant in Mt Maunganui on Sunday.
The Fire Service's Mr Rewi said vagrants would often light fires in rubbish bins but did not not necessarily intend to destroy buildings.
He said it was important to store bins at a distance at least equivalent to their height away from buildings to lessen the likelihood of fires spreading.
