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A night shift worker who caught the Whakarewarewa Rugby Community Sports Club blaze on video says it was “horrible to see”.

Security guard Nina Teiri said she was on Te Ngae Rd passing Pak’nSave when she saw smoke in the sky.

“I wondered, ‘what’s that? That’s massive’, then I saw the fire trucks heading out the same way I was going, so I decided to just follow them.”

Teiri said she saw some flames coming from the Whakarewarewa club, so she parked on the gravel area adjacent to Puarenga Park, opposite Arawa Park racecourse.

“I just sat and watched and it wasn’t too bad when I got there but then it gradually got worse and worse. All of a sudden there were [more] flames pouring out of the club.”

Whakarewarewa Rugby Community Sports Club on fire on Tuesday morning.

The club caught fire early yesterday morning and destroyed the building and decades-old memorabilia inside.

Crews battling a fire at Whakarewarewa Rugby Community Sports Club.

The clubrooms have been the home of the championship-winning Whakarewarewa club since 1997.

The first 111 call was lodged at 2.35am. Teiri said she was impressed by the swift work of the fire crews, saying fire trucks kept arriving while others would leave to refill their water tanks.

“They were just coming in and out the whole time.”

Fire destroyed the Whakarewarewa Rugby Community Sports club. Photo / Kelly Makiha

She said watching the fire crews battle the blaze over the next hour was “unreal”.

“They would put out one side and then another would go up. Then they would put out that side and the other side would go up again. They were just battling and it was never-ending. It was horrible to see.”

As she watched, club members arrived and parked near her, including one woman who was “very, very upset”.

Teiri said the firefighters never gave up and eventually their hard work paid off.

“If they weren’t there and working as fast as they were, it could have been worse and could have spread.”

A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokeswoman said the fire was not being treated as suspicious, but it was too early to release details around what might have caused it.

 is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.