A fire damaged a house which provides accommodation for cancer patients and their families in Palmerston North early today.
There are suspicions the blaze may have been started deliberately, Newstalk ZB reported.
Chief fire officer Rodger Calder said at about 5am the fire service were called by fire
alarm to Ozanam House, which provides a home for out-of-town patients receiving cancer treatment at Palmerston North Hospital.
Mr Calder said: "On arrival the indicator panel was showing a number of areas, and that normally means one of two things -- either there's a massive fault in the system or there's a massive fire at the other end. In this case the other end of the building was on fire.
"As the crews arrived the windows blew out and they got to work and cut the fire off. They did a great job in saving the building."
Fortunately, because of the time of year, nobody was in the building during the fire.
One room was extensively fire damaged, another was severely fire damaged and the whole complex with badly smoke damaged, he said.
"It's a huge loss to the community and to all the people who are suffering cancer and need treatment" Mr Calder said.
It was too early to say what started the fire, he said.
- NZPA
