School building gutted by fire

People had been living in building gutted by fire at an abandoned Wairarapa school tonight.

The fire service were alerted to the blaze at 9.13pm tonight and found the 20 by 15 metre building at Masterton's Lansdowne School already well involved when they arrived.

It took 40 minutes for up to 12 fire fighters, some in breathing apparatus, to contain and dampen down the blaze.

Masterton Station Officer Mike Cornford said the building had been used as a pool changing room but people had been living there recently.

"There were beds and clothes laying about and police are well aware of the building. There's no power to the building and we're treating it as suspicious. It's severely damaged."

The building was detached which helped stop the fire spreading to other buildings, he said.

Police had cordoned off the scene and the fire service would begin investigations tomorrow.

Lansdowne School closed in 2004 after a government review.

There was an arson at the school in December 2004, only a month after it closed and hundreds of windows had been smashed.

In June 2007 a classroom was burned down and surrounding buildings damaged in an arson.

Mr Cornford said a there had been many more arsons at Lansdowne and three other abandoned schools in Masterton.

"There have been fires on numerous occasions. Arsons at a real issue."

- © Fairfax NZ News