Tauranga Intermediate principal Brian Diver is today praising the actions of a 10-year-old boy who raised the alarm about a fire in a classroom at the school on Sunday evening.

Fire broke out in an unattached classroom block at the school on 18^th Avenue around 5.15pm burning through the external walls and completely gutting Room 43.

Fire has destroyed much of Room 43 at Tauranga Intermediate – a classroom used by the nearby Kaka Street Special School. Photo: Supplied.

Firefighters had to open up the roof to get to parts of the fire. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

'A 10-year-old boy saw smoke coming out of it, he informed a staff member who was on site, and the fire service were alerted,” says principal Brian Diver today.

Today the room, which suffered extensive fire, smoke and water damage, is taped off while fire safety officials and the Ministry of Education investigate the fire, believed to have been caused by an electrical fault in a fan.

The classroom is used as a satellite facility for the nearby Kaka Street Special School and normally houses 11 pupils and six teachers.

'What will happen is those students will be educated offsite at the Kaka Street base school until we can take further action and get the building repaired,” says Brian.

'Prompt action by the fire service saved the building so we are very lucky. The fire service seem to think it was a malfunctioning electrical unit that has caused the problem,” says Brian.

'The school will be functioning as usual there will be no disruption to students. There is no other damage. The building was completely isolated. The structural integrity looks okay, but there is severe damage through smoke and water inside.”

The room at the school is taped off today while fire officials and Ministry of Education investigates.

The prompt alarm allowed the fire service to arrive just in time to stop the fire engulfing the classroom, says Tauranga Fire Service senior station officer Mark Keller.

'We got there just in time before it really got underway,” says Mark.

The cause of the fire is believed to be an electrical fault. When fire fighters arrived the building was still locked up with no signs of any forced entry, says Mark.

Kaka Street Special school principal Barrie Wickens says the looming school holidays gives them a bit of a buffer.

'We are working with the families to see if we can accommodate them at home, however those that need to come to school because of circumstances, we will certainly accommodate them at the base school,” says Barrie.

The fire destroyed the contents of the satellite school's double classroom but trikes and bikes stored out the back, and used in the children's therapy are safe

'But everything inside the big double classroom is melted totalled beyond recovery really,” says Barrie.

Lost are teaching resources developed by teacher aides that have been accumulated over thousands of hours, says Barrie.

'They can be remade but they have taken literally thousands of hours to accumulate that kind of stuff. Our students being special needs, a lot of the resources were very visual resources specially adapted resources.

'They want to go and have a look but we can't do anything till we get clearance from the assessors, then there's a process of sifting through and identifying assets and all that.

'We won't be in there for months, we have to think about what's going to happen. Ideally we would like something on site over there for the students to return to because that brings normality.”