School fire guts tech centre

Fairfield Intermediate on Clarkin Road, Hamilton. Photo / Christine Cornege

Classrooms at a Hamilton intermediate school were badly damaged after a fire broke out in its technology centre last night.

Emergency services were called to Fairfield Intermediate School about 6.45pm after neighbours called the Fire Service and said they could see flames.

The blaze gutted the school's two-storey technology centre, where it was believed to have begun. As well, two storerooms and another classroom were badly water-damaged after the sprinkler system was activated.

Flames spread along the building's ceiling, but the 28 firefighters who were called to the scene on Clarkin Rd were able to quickly contain the fire and stop it from spreading, northern fire communications centre shift manager Dallas Ramsay said.

The fire was being treated as suspicious until it could be proved otherwise, a police spokesman said

Fire investigators and police would return to the school this morning to assess where and how the blaze was started, he said.

- staff reporter