AN investigation was today under way into the cause of a fire which ripped through a York community centre.

The blaze at Tang Hall Community Centre has left dozens of local groups, sports teams and clubs homeless for the foreseeable future.

More than 50 firefighters, along with police officers, were called out to the centre at about 10.30pm last night.

They arrived to find its roof well alight and flames licking high into the night sky.

The fire raged on until the small hours today, and fire crews were still on site at 10am.

Police say the cause of the fire is not yet known. A fire brigade spokesman said that while arson could not be ruled out, early indications showed that a pile of rubbish alongside the building may have caught fire and spread to the roof.

"It's a tragedy, an absolute disaster," said Tom Gibson, chairman of the building's management committee. We will just have to look to the future and rebuild."

The roof, where the fire started, was destroyed and caved in, causing extensive damage to the building's interior. The building itself is insured, but its contents were not.

There were no casualties, and no-one had to be evacuated.

Alison Wytchwood, who lives in nearby Derwent Avenue, said she first saw the fire as an orange glow in the sky.

"I looked out the window and you could just see the flames getting higher and higher," she said.

"The smoke was incredible and there was burning ash being carried into the sky."

Alison said that when the fire was at its peak, flames were shooting up 30ft from the community centre.

Smoke and water damage to the building mean that it will not return to use in the near future.

A £60,000 extension containing an office was also extensively damaged, and early reports indicate that nothing from the entire building will be salvageable.

The popular community centre, which opened in 1992 at a cost of about £500,000, was home to many different projects and activity groups, and even a church. More than 15,000 people used it last year.

Tonight, an after-school club, family drop-in centre, a group for people with learning difficulties and a football team had been due to use the centre. And this weekend it was to play host to a Festival Of Many Cultures, a music and dance event organised by one of its most successful resident groups, the Navarang Project.

Gordon Campbell-Thomas, of Friends of St Nicholas Fields, said that any groups left without facilities by the fire could relocate temporarily to the nearby York Environmental Community Centre. He can be contacted on 411821.