The large fire that destroyed a building at Long Bay College overnight was not suspicious, but had an accidental cause, the fire service says.
The devastating blaze at the school on Auckland's North Shore is just the latest in a string of unfortunate incidents Long Bay College has suffered this year.
Fire crews extinguished the blaze which tore through a building on Friday morning, but one firefighter told Newshub they were "furious" they weren't told it had asbestos.
He says they found out too late, and would have changed their firefighting approach and worn different safety gear if they'd known.
A fire service spokesman says the building, which did have asbestos, had been rebuilt around 10 years ago, and there was only a slight possibility of any asbestos remaining.
The large fire broke out in a classroom block at Long Bay College on Auckland's North Shore at around 2:30am on Friday.
Fifteen fire service units responded to the blaze, which was "well-involved" when crews arrived. Fifty firefighters remain on the scene.
The school is closed for the day, and Principal Russell Brooke says he is "gutted".
"The fire service have got it all out, and now we're dealing with the aftermath of it and looking at a very sorry building indeed," he told The AM Show.
He's thankful they managed to contain the fire to one building.
"It looks like they've confined it to the woodwork room - around it will probably be smoke and water damage, but the destruction looks like the big woodwork room and the stores around it."
The building was built in 1975, and refurbished around a decade ago.
"It was well outfitted, there was lots of good equipment in there; it was a good room, a good space."
Mr Brooke was notified of the blaze at 4:15am - the second early wake-up call this year.
"It was only on January 8, early in the morning, I got a phone call that unfortunately one of our international students was killed very near here in a teenage accident."
French student Peyo Crus was killed in a car crash on Oteha Valley Rd which injured five others.
"I'm a bit over these early morning phone calls, to be honest."
Another former student, Carissa Avison, went missing on January 26. Her body was found in Woodhill Forest on February 17.
Kim Gray, who had only recently retired from teaching at the school, died of cancer on February 12.
Just days earlier, another former student, 21-year-old Rachael de Jong died in rapidly rising water on the Waikato River after floodgates opened.
"[Rachael's] family are involved with our school - her brother is here and dad's on the board, and very well-loved in our community, so we lost people who've been pretty special to us," Mr Brooke says.
"This is a great community. People are realistic, we know how to grieve and to be down and also how to carry on and we'll sort ourselves out and we'll carry on again. That's what life teaches us."
As for the fire, Mr Brooke says the cause will be investigated, but early signs are there wasn't foul play.
"It's looking a bit more natural, nothing lying around that looks too odd.
"We'll work through that today, they'll have to find out where pieces of equipment were, what was happening there yesterday and I guess we'll know better at the end of the day."
Newshub.
