A fire that caused the evacuation of the Whakatane Hospital this morning was caused by a faulty light fitting.
Eastern Bay of Plenty fire safety officer Jon Rewi said the fitting in a doctor's office of the second floor of the Stanton building had shorted and resulted in a fire.
"Unfortunately, at the time, the fire system was being worked on so the alarm did not operate," Mr Rewi said.
"A fire warden, who was on scene, unsuccessfully tried to manually operate the alarm but it was a doctor who rang 111 who alerted the fire service to the blaze."