A large number of Bay of Plenty volunteer firefighters had an early morning wakeup call on Sunday.

The call came through just after 4am as a 'building fire' in the Wainui area, says a post on the Ohope Volunteer Fire Brigade Facebook page.

'A second appliance was automatically turned out from the Whakatane Volunteer Fire Brigade (standard protocol for structure fires) along with a tanker from Te Puke, due to the rural location.

'As we pulled out of the station we were advised it was actually a bush fire and on arrival we discovered the remains of a burnt out car hidden down a long bush track.

'Access was difficult in the appliance, so we transported our portable pump to the scene and drafted water from the nearby stream to dampen down the remains.”

Investigations into the fire are continuing.