portions of the parking lot at the Shopping Centre in Hamilton yesterday.

Shopping Centre manager Mr. Stephen Rego said the fire, which was reported at 12.24 a.m., was probably caused by a cigarette igniting some paper.

"It looks like someone had dragged a bale of paper from the Telephone Company to the parking lot to sleep on,'' he said. "The fire damaged the plaster on the side of the building and caused many of the plastic milk cartons to melt.''