Another fire at the old bowling club

There wasn't much of the old Kaitaia Bowling Club pavilion left by the time Sunday's fire was under control. Photo / Peter Jackson

An electrical fault was believed to have caused the fire that severely damaged the upper floor of the old Kaitaia Bowling Club pavilion in Matthews' Ave, Kaitaia, on October 29 last year.

The blaze that did even more damage on Sunday was believed to have been deliberately lit, senior fire risk management officer Gary Beer saying it was suspicious, and that he was working with the police.

The alarm was raised at 2.47pm, crews from the Kaitaia, Ahipara and Mangonui fire brigades responding. The first Kaitaia appliance was there within six minutes, but by then the upper floor was burning from end to end. No one was inside the building.

By the time the blaze was under control much of the roof had collapsed, and significant holes had been burned in the floor, adding to the risks faced by firefighters.

Beer said he had found no evidence of accelerants, but the power supply had been cut off from the building after the October fire, and he had no doubt that it had been deliberately lit. A good deal of vandalism had been done since October, he added, including the smashing of windows on the ground floor, and a lot of "colourful art work" had been added to the walls.

It is some years since the bowling club sold the property, which in late 2017 became a 'youth space,' operated by Te Hiku Hauora. That lease has since ended. The property is understood to be owned by an American couple.