A person or people on a boat are thought to have started the fire that saw fire fighters called to Rat Island in Tauranga harbor this afternoon.

Smoke from the north eastern end of the island, also known at Motuopuhi, could be seen from the shore and resulted in a Tauranga fire crew making the trudge across the mud flat to deal with it at low tide.

Motuopuhi is the island that lies close to Turrent Road and can be seen every day by commuters crossing to Maungatapu and from Hairini.

Fire fighters were told a boat was seen moored against the island last night, against the tree that was the seat of the fire today.

'We are just wondering if they did some cooking or lit a fire because it was in the root of one of the trees,” says Tauranga station officer Mania Durham.

'It was a funny one to nail down what actually started it. It had been burning for a little while, the ashes from a cooking fire I would say.

'A couple of people said there was a boat moored there last night.”

If they were fishers cooking their catch the fire fighters saw no evidence of any fish says Mania.

It was a fire that called for traditional methods, a bucket of water and a spade. But what looked like a five minute job from the shore, turned out to be more complicated when firefighters took a closer look.

'It had got right down to the roots. We had to dig right down and pull the tree aside,” says Mania.

They were there for about half an hour.