Rotorua Fire Brigade called to two incidents overnight

Firefighters attended to a kitchen fire in Brookland Rd and a blaze in a rubbish bin at Western Heights Primary School. Photo/File

A deliberately lit fire at a local primary school and an early morning kitchen fire kept Rotorua fire crews busy at the weekend.

The first callout was to a fire at Western Heights Primary School shortly after 5pm on Saturday.

Rotorua Fire Brigade senior station officer Colin Rolfe said fire crews arrived to find a fire outside the building.

"We extinguished the fire using a hose reel," he said.

Mr Rolfe said the incident, which is being treated as deliberate, was started by a rubbish bin being set on fire.

Only superficial damage was done and police also attended the scene.

They were then called to a kitchen fire at a Brookland Rd address at 2.30am.

"About seven people were asleep in the house and were woken by the smoke alarms."

A man then threw a pan of fat, which had been burning on the stove, outside.

He suffered minor burns to his hands and face while three other people were treated for minor smoke inhalation.

Mr Rolfe said the important thing was that the smoke alarms were working.

"It saved a lot of damage to the house and the injuries weren't as bad as they could have been," he said.