Police and a fire safety investigator are going to return to the scene on Waihi Road where four cars in a locked compound caught on fire.

Tauranga Fire Brigade were called to ABC Rentals on Waihi Rd at about 2am to find the vehicles 'well alight”.

Firefighters spent about an hour at the scene where several cas were on fire early this morning. File photo.

Tauranga Fire Brigade station officer Nigel Liddicoat says the cause of the fire is under investigation but the vehicles were inside a locked compound with a barb wire perimeter fence.

'Up to four cars were written off and another suffered minor damage from radiant heat.

'Police and a fire safety investigator will be returning to the scene this morning to investigate the matter further.”

The brigade spent about an hour at the scene.

Earlier in the night, Mount Maunganui Fire Brigade were called to a meter box fire at an address on Maunganui Road around 9pm.

Mount Maunganui Fire Brigade station office Roger Pickett says the meter box on the outside of the building where the mains entry goes into the house was sparking.

'It cooked itself up. The power authorities had to cut the power to the house from the road, 'It was a big wiring re-job that had to be done after that, so I would say the residents would have been without power for a while.”