The Beaver Bank Kinsac Community Centre was gutted by flames on Wednesday. (CBC)

A Halifax-area community centre that housed the local fire department was badly damaged in a blaze that broke out just before midnight Wednesday.

The Beaver Bank Kinsac Community Centre, built in 2004, was gutted by the flames.

Besides being home to the Beaver Bank-Kinsac fire department, it also housed an RCMP community station and a daycare.

Marina Johnson, co-owner of the daycare, said she was devastated when she saw what had happened.

"It was heartbreaking. And you just think of everything that everybody has worked to make the community centre what it is — and that hard work is gone," she said.

The volunteer fire station is not manned, so firefighters from other detachments responded when the blaze broke out. No one was injured.

The building was already engulfed by flames when firefighters arrived on the scene. Crews continued to battle several hot spots in the building early Thursday morning.

There will be an investigation into the cause.

Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency divisional Chief Mike LeRue said the fire was concentrated at the back of the building. A firewall separating the community centre and fire station likely prevented the fire from spreading, he said.

"The community centre part is a total loss," LeRue said, while the structure of the fire station seemed to be in "pretty good shape."

Cheryl Leadley, co-owner of the daycare, said 70 families will have to find someplace to send their children.

"This community centre, you know, it's so much to so many people," she said. "There's the senior citizens who come here every day, this is their lives. It's our children's lives. We employ people in Beaver Bank. This is so personal.

"It's surreal, it's like, 'This isn't happening to us.'"

Leadley said she is in the process of building a new daycare centre and it will likely open this winter.

The nearby Beaver Bank-Kinsac Elementary School, with about 250 students, will be closed Thursday because the smell of smoke from the fire has permeated the building.