An elderly man has been rescued by a neighbour from his burning two-storey house in Parklands.
Emergency services were called to the fire in Curzon Place, Parklands at about 6.10am on Monday.
Caity Leah lives opposite the house and told Newstalk ZB's Chris Lynch she woke up to a fire alarm and land banging and popping noises.
She said another neighbour carried the elderly man out of the burning house and onto the street.
"It was extremely intense to wake up to and I feel for everyone involved."
Leah said the elderly person was very upset.
A St John spokesman said the man was taken by ambulance to Christchurch Hospital with serious injuries.
The two-storey flat was extensively damaged on the lower level and is now extinguished.
"The building was well involved on arrival," the FENZ spokesman said.
By about 6.30am, firefighters were still working to extinguish the blaze.
Officers were dampening down the fire at about 7.30am.
Yesterday, fire crews battled a large house blaze in Pōkeno, Waikato.
Emergency services rushed to the scene after multiple reports of a fire that could be seen from State Highway 1, south of Auckland.
A huge plume of black smoke could be seen billowing from the blaze, which was first reported about 2.46pm. There were no reports of any injuries.
Detectives flew to Victoria, NSW and Queensland as part of the investigation.