Tangiteroria Sports Complex in Northland destroyed by fire

All that remains of the Tangiteroria Sports Complex after a suspicious fire in the early hours of this morning. John Stone.

Two fire safety investigators are looking into the cause of a fire that destroyed the well used Tangiteroria Sports Complex this morning.

The complex, which was built after a massive community fundraising effort, went up in flames around 3am this morning, a spokeswoman for Fire and Emergency NZ FENZ said.

It's on Pukehuia Rd, about 32km south west of Whangārei.

She said FENZ received the call that the complex, which is about 40 metres by 20 metres was on fire and two crews from Dargaville and one from Whangārei attended.

However, she said, the building was well ablaze by the time firefighters got there and the complex could not be saved.

Firefighters left the scene shortly before 11am today after dampening down hot spots.

Two fire safety investigators were still at the scene trying to determine the cause of the blaze, she said.

The complex was built after the local community fundraising effort and opened on July 4, 1987.

At least some of the timber used to build the hall was from timber milled from farms in the area.

The complex was built by around 160 families in the community. They funded and built it, employing a full time carpenter and rostered four people from the community a day to help build it.

Families reared calves, milled and sold timber from their farms.