A council-owned house empty for more than two years is at the centre of a police investigation after two rooms were gutted by a suspicious fire.
Investigators say windows had been broken in two places at the Ewing Rd villa, in Whangarei, which caught fire at about 6.40am yesterday.
Fire risk management officer Michael Champtaloup said the blaze was being treated as suspicious. He declined to say what started the fire, but that information could be released later this week.
"It looks like it's started around the fire place in one of the lounges," Mr Champtaloup said. "Two rooms are fairly gutted and the rest of them are fairly damaged."
From the fireplace on the second story, the blaze spread to the roof cavity.
The room where the blaze started was the worst damaged with the fire ripping through the walls and ceiling, while the second room was slightly less damaged with the fire mainly localised to the ceiling.
Other rooms on the second storey were also smoke and water damage, Mr Champtaloup said.
The property, which includes the two-storey villa and separate large building, was bought by Whangarei District Council for $430,000 in 2005 along with other properties in the street to develop the aquatic centre.
Two fire appliances from Whangarei quickly managed to extinguish the fire, Mr Champtaloup said. They were there until about 10.30am yesterday after dampening down hotspots..
"The fire brigade did a good job to stop it," he said. "It could have been a lot worse."
There were a couple of broken windows were it appeared people had tried to get inside, Mr Champtaloup said.
"It looks like they tried to get in around the bottom and they couldn't and they had to go around the other side [on the second storey]."
The police's Criminal Investigation Branch were at the property early yesterday morning and took away some evidence. Mr Champtaloup declined to say what the evidence was.
There was rubbish and empty bottles around the outside of the house along with a large number of iTunes top up cards, he said.
"It looks like people have just been using it as a hangout-type place," Mr Champtaloup said. "There was evidence of somebody being inside."
While the house was extensively damaged, Mr Champtaloup said it could likely be repaired.
Whangarei District Council property manager Mike Hibbert said there had been reports of people being on the property recently.
"We actually went through and secured and screwed down some doors," Mr Hibbert said. There were regular checks made of the property, he said.
Until the council received the fire service's report there was not very much more he could say, Mr Hibbert said. In March Mr Hibbert told the Northern Advocate said property was originally rented out at $270 a week, but had been empty for at least two years.
The council had been exploring options for the property, with the plan to remove the house and large building from the site.