Mount Maunganui firefighters are suspicious after being called to a car fire in an empty area with about 15 seemingly abandoned cars.

Mount Maunganui firefighters were called to a "suspicious" car fire on Newton St.

Emergency services were called to a vacant section on Newton St where two vans were on fire about 5am on Saturday.

Mount Maunganui senior station officer Lindsay Nicol says firefighters are treating the fire as suspicious after finding about 15 'de-registered” cars in the same area.

'(There was a) whole row of vehicles parked pretty close to each other. We're not quite sure why they are there,” says Lindsay.

'They're quite old. Most of them appear to be de-registered.”

Lindsay suspects the cars have been there for 'quite some time” as long grass is growing around some of them.

When firefighters arrived at the scene two vans – parked about ½ a metre away from each other – were on fire, says Lindsay.

'I suspect one had been deliberately lit on fire.”

Lindsay says the fire was first reported as a building fire, but he says a large concrete fire wall prevented flames from spreading into any surrounding buildings.

No one was at the scene when firefighters arrived.

Three appliances attended the fire but Lindsay says only one was needed. An appliance from Tauranga was also sent for back-up.

Meanwhile, Greerton firefighters are warning families to be careful when lighting fireworks following a scrub fire in Pyes Pa.

Emergency services were called to a Stongebridge Way address at about 5.45pm on Saturday after a scrub fire firefighters say was caused by a family's fireworks.