A fire caused by some roofing equipment has damaged the Institute of Asian Research building at the University of British Columbia.

The fire was discovered by some UBC building operations staff on West Mall around 11 p.m. Thursday.

Assistant Chief Peter Bridge with Vancouver Fire Rescue said the fire may have been caused by some roofing equipment left on the roof.

Peter Bridge said the fire may have been kindling for a number of hours. (Gian-Paolo Mendoza/CBC)

"A roofer's torch probably helped this one along," said Bridge. "The roofers probably left a hotspot within the structure and it started to build over the last six hours or so."

Firefighters had to tear a section of the building's roof to extinguish the source of the fire.

Bridge said most of the damage to the building is surface damage and the roofers will be returning on Friday morning to fix it.