City Hall in the tiny Palm Beach County city of South Bay was gutted by a fire early Monday morning that might have been deliberately set.

Arson investigators were searching the building’s remains throughout the day on Monday. The state fire marshal’s arson team was working with South Bay’s Public Safety Department to piece together what had happened.

City Hall workers, seven in all, were told arson was suspected.

“It’s a mess,” said June Boglioli, assistant to the city manager.

She said she was not aware of any threats having been made or any reason why someone would set fire to the building, which is in a small compound including public safety headquarters and the City Commission chambers.

Attempts to reach South Bay Public Safety Chief Danny Jones and fire marshal’s Lt. Richard Schuler were unsuccessful.

Channel 5 news reported investigators at the scene said they believed the fire had been set.

Today’s City Commission meeting was canceled. The chambers suffered smoke damage.

As of late Monday afternoon city officials hadn’t been allowed inside City Hall to see what could be saved, Boglioli said.

“We’re hoping when we get in maybe there’s some furniture in some areas of the building that are salvageable,” Boglioli said. “We’re hoping that some of the documents in the files might be salvageable. We just don’t know at this point.”

The community of about 4,000 residents is in the far western section of the county at the southern end of Lake Okeechobee.

South Bay Mayor Clarence Anthony, who couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, is the incoming president of the influential National League of Cities.

County officials came to South Bay’s aid on Monday, offering the use of surplus desks, files and other office equipment to help get a temporary City Hall put together. Boglioli said the interim City Hall would be housed in an old post office.

Deputy County Administrator Pat Miller said county workers were dispatched to South Bay on Monday morning to put together a list of what the city needed.

Enough office equipment is in county warehouses, prior to being sold as surplus, to outfit the city’s offices, he said.