Frustrated Port Hills locals are getting desperate to know when they will be allowed back onto their properties.

Quakes and quakes, some flooding, more quakes, and now fires? Come on, Mother Nature, what's next?

The Port Hills inferno was so powerful that it was spreading up to 160m every minute at it's peak, and water firefighters put on it evaporated.

Smoky smells in Port Hills' properties does not pose a serious threat to health, authorities say.

Port Hills homeowners have this afternoon been allowed to return to their smouldering homes that have burned to the ground.

Frustrated homeowners still don't know whether their Port Hills homes are standing or have been ravaged by fire.

Contractors working in the area where the devastating fire first broke out on Monday pleaded for helicopters to be sent out, it can be revealed.

Helicopters are getting ready to go up and give emergency workers an overview of any fresh destruction.

Plumes of smoke billow over blackened stretches of land on the edges of our second-largest city.

The Port Hills fires in Christchurch merged into one huge blaze, threatening houses and lives. About 1000 people left their homes as the fire reached 1850ha, creating a big challenge for firefighters. A state of emergency has been declared in Christchurch and Selwyn.

Civil Defence's reports of houses destroyed by fire and evacuations over the past 24 hours have varied wildly.

A Christchurch couple who were told that their home was lost in the Port Hills blaze, just hours after finally insuring it, appear to have had a lucky escape.

Exactly how many properties have been damaged by fires in Christchurch will not be known until much later, authorities say. And although

A photographer who surveyed the damage of the Port Hills fire from the air has shared the incredible images that show the devastation.

All Blacks legend speaks to NZME in his first interview since the wildfires.

Port Hills fire updates: Amazing images show the extent of the damage from the air, and just how close it came to some properties.

The ongoing firefighting effort includes 15 helicopters and planes - the maximum number that can safely be in the air at any one time.

As a white shape emerged through the smoke, a stressed Port Hills homeowner saw what he needed to see: his family home of 20 years had survived the fire. So far.

Employers need to be flexible and allow staff to tend to their families and properties in the wake of the Port Hills fire.

Chaos and cordons as evacuated locals try to find out how their homes survived the night.

As fire spread down the hills above his beloved historic Ohinetahi homestead and gardens, Sir Miles Warren wasn't going anywhere.

Prime Minister Bill English has scrapped his day's schedule to head to Christchurch instead.

People in the Dyers Pass Rd area of the Cashmere Hills have been ordered to leave their properties immediately.

Evacuated residents spend a restless night away from their homes in the path of the Port Hills fire. Some got terrible news this morning.

Lianne Dalziel says rubberneckers aren't helping and people need to 'stay at a distance' from the fires.

In the midst of the raging inferno enveloping Christchurch's picturesque Port Hills, came a new life.

State of emergency declared as Port Hills' wildfires continued yesterday.