Waikato blaze damages local school

School principal Tim Howard with pupils (L-R) Shafia, 9, Ashiya, 10, and Shaheed Khan, 11, Khan, George, 11, and Liam Ballard, 13, and front; Charlie, 7, and Cartell Drummond, 10.

A fire at a rural Waikato school is being treated as suspicious, the second arson of a school in the region in a week.

However, the damage was able to be limited to a classroom at Glen Massey School, five minutes west of Ngaruawahia, after the actions of quick-thinking residents.

Firefighters were called to the school just after 7am today.

School principal Tim Howard said damage was confined to their much-loved 100-year-old classroom which had three of its small windows smashed yesterday, the sixth vandalism at the school since March.

Fortunately for the school, Mr Howard believes the classroom will be able to be saved but the school will have to close for the next two days as they find an alternative room.

The fire had begun outside the classroom with an item being lit near the rear entrance to the building.

Fire shot up into the eves of the roof and had affected a bit of a hallway, he said, but thanks to residents hearing the school alarm's they used the school's emergency hoses to help contain the blaze until firefighters arrived at the scene.

"When I heard I was thinking the whole block had gone. We've had issues with vandalism with broken windows and there was another incident on Saturday morning and my initial thought was that it maybe related and it might still be."

Mr Howard thanked the community for rushing to the school's aid.

"Very much so and they're all local and have been through the school, it's their school."

Mr Howard said the school celebrated its centenary in March but he wanted former pupils to know that the historic building will be saved.

"I've already notified a few locals coming up to see and they will be pleasantly relieved that it's okay. It's repairable, we will just have to relocate the classroom. Even though it's not (fire) damaged there's a bit of smoke and water damage."

Several pupils and parents were outside the school surveying the damage this morning.
Ashiya Kahn,10, described the fire as annoying as it was her classroom that had been affected now by not only the fire but also having its windows smashed.

She said she will go along tomorrow and help clean it up.

Max Ballard, 8, was unimpressed by the fire of at his school which he loved because "it's so old and eating (lunch)".