About 100 team members were evacuated for 30 minutes which is when the thefts occurred.

Up to four Australian shirts which were designed to protect athletes from Zika Virus were taken as well as a laptop.

Australian Olympic boss Kitty Chiller said she saw fire fighters leave the building with the stolen items.  

"I saw three fire (fighters) ... walking out with our team shirts," she said.

"I don't know who they were ... I didn't know if they were volunteers that had been given a shirt because they had helped us at that point in time.

"It doesn't seem to have been what happened."

Officials believe the fire was caused by a cigarette tossed by a local worker into piles of rubbish in the basement.