Tauranga City Council is facing a $20,000 planting bill after last night's suspicious fire in the Papamoa dunes.

Fire broke out in a section of the dunes on Papamoa Beach Road opposite Parton Road around 5pm.

A fire quickly spread through the sand dunes on Papamoa Beach Road last night.

The Papamoa sand dunes today. Photo: Sarah Lockwood.

Firefighters from Papamoa and Mount Maunganui were called to the 10metre by 20metre fire that witnesses say spread quickly spread along the beachfront towards Mount Maunganui.

City park rangers team leader Warren Aitken says about 200 square metres was scorched in the fire and the cost of rehabilitating the area is around $20,000.

The main plant affected is the Muehlenbeckia or the Pohuhue which grows naturally on the dunes and in coastal scrub throughout New Zealand.

The plant is used in coastal restoration to stabilise sand dunes, along with providing a valuable habitat for birds and shelter for insects.

Warren says it is a very significant cost to replant and rehabilitate the area of dunes after fires.

'We will be looking to find out what the cause was and who did it.”

Papamoa Volunteer Fire Brigade deputy fire chief Brent Sandford says two crews used multiple fire deliveries to put out the blaze.

'It was going quite well when they got there and the flames were quite high.

'They were there for about an hour putting it out.”

He says the fire is being treated as suspicious, but they are not sure at this stage of the exact cause.

Re-planting of the area will take place during the council's planting season from late May to September cutting into the department's annual budget, unless reparation can be recovered from the offenders, says Warren.

'We will try and cover it with our standard budget. It means we will just have to prioritise a bit more.

'We may have to do some preparation before but we will assess that once we have looked at the area.”

Smoke billows across Papamoa from a fire in the sand dunes opposite Parton Road. Photo: Sarah Lockwood.