Fire that destroyed classroom was 'cowardly'

Photo / Ben Fraser

A fire that destroyed a Rotorua Lakes High School building used to teach children with special needs has been described as a cowardly act of arson.

Rotorua Lakes High School board of trustees chairwoman Helen Tarei said Tuesday night's fire had affected the whole school and a reward would be offered to find the culprit.

"The classroom is gutted and all resources have been lost and a lot of those resources are quite individual to those children," she said.

"All their work which they have been working on has also been lost. It is just devastating."

It was the second fire in the classroom in a week and Mrs Tarei said cih incidents like this had become more common at the school over the past 18 months.

"One teacher described it as desecrating the mana of our school."

Rotorua Fire Safety Officer Stuart Bootten and police were at the school yesterday investigating the cause.

Mr Bootten said firefighters had been to 11 callouts at the school since 2007, excluding false alarms.

"It is definitely of concern to us and we are currently in the process of trying to find out what is going on."