A late night fire at an Auckland secondary school boarding house is being treated as suspicious

Sleeping pupils at Mount Albert Grammar School were forced to evacuate from their dormitories after the blaze broke out just after midnight.

Fire and Emergency says four fire trucks were called to the hostel, where they quickly extinguished a small fire in a dormitory near the back of the boarding block.

Everyone sleeping in the dormitories had been safely evacuated by the time firefighters arrived.

The fire is being treated as arson, Police have been notified, and fire investigators will return to the scene this morning to examine the cause.