A resident in a mental health secure unit in Tauranga set fire to their pillow last night.

Staff extinguished the bedding fire on 20th Avenue using a dry powder extinguisher, says Tauranga senior station officer Phil Price.

The incident took place at a mental health secure unit on 20th Avenue.

Only about half the pillow burned, but the smoke was enough to require fire fighters from Greerton and Tauranga to ventilate the unit.

'When we got there staff had already put the fire out, but there was quite a lot of smoke through the wing. We just had to ventilate it,” says Phil.

'The staff there moved the residents away and made sure they were secure.”

The fire brigade was called at 7.30pm. There was no structural damage to the unit.

Two weeks ago Shane Tamyhana Kelly, 22, was charged with arson after deliberately setting fire to towels at Tauranga Hospital mental health unit, causing fire and water damage to one room.

When he appeared in Tauranga District Court on September 29, he was remanded in custody until today.