Crews from Thames, Turua, Te Puru and Tapu have been called to assist at the blaze.

Emergency crews are being kept busy after a series of crashes in Auckland and Wellington this afternoon.

The inhabitants of a house that caught fire today escaped without injury.

Four fire crews are battling a blaze in the Lower Hutt suburb of Stokes Valley.

Fire crews remained on watch last night near the remains of a forest blaze near Dunedin.

One of four suspicious fires along a stretch of roadside west of Taupo this afternoon destroyed an area of native bush and came perilously close to a rural home.

Occupants in a Morrinsville house managed to flee before their house burned down this afternoon.

Firefighters spent more than an hour battling five small blazes in Taupo which they suspect were deliberately lit.

A man who survived an Auckland house fire that killed members of his family is showing signs of recovery in hospital, supporters say.

A front window of a house in Otara, South Auckland is burnt out after a fire this morning.

A man who lost his wife, 5-year-old son and mother-in-law in a fatal house fire on Thursday has opened his eyes for the first time since the tragedy.

An 11-year-old girl who escaped the fatal house fire which claimed the lives of her mother, brother and grandmother is inconsolable with grief.

Police have serious concerns for the occupant of the Waverley home which was destroyed by a fire on Monday.

A fundraising effort has begun for a man whose wife, son and mother-in-law died in a fire yesterday.

A kitten who had been evading fire crews for weeks made a 'leap of faith' from a towering palm tree yesterday while trying to make a run for it again.

A truck used to destroy sensitive documents catches fire outside the Treasury building in Wellington this morning.

A person has been taken to hospital after a fire in a block of flats in Invercargill overnight.

Three generations of the family of a prominent New Zealand refugee advocate have died in fatal house fire in South Auckland earlier today.

A vehicle carrying gas bottles was driven into the headquarters of the Australian Christian Lobby in Canberra last night.

A neighbour says she can't get the sound of cries out of her head after a house fire killed three people in South Auckland this morning.

Burglars snuck into the destroyed two-story house and stole the only salvageable items including a TV, a cabinet and food.

A "body" discovered at a South Taranaki property completely destroyed by a fire yesterday was in fact the remains of an animal - but the search for the property's owner continues.

Firefighters attended a blaze on a traffic island in a busy Auckland city road this afternoon.

A body has been discovered in the remains of a Taranaki home gutted by fire.

Firefighters grateful for change of heart on legal troubles.

Firefighters battled a blaze that gutted a two-story house in Christchurch this evening.

A house was engulfed in flames in South Taranaki today.

Firefighters are working in warm conditions to douse the fire at Te Hauke, south of Hastings.

There were two house fires last night - both ignited around midnight.

It is not known if anyone is inside a burning house in Christchurch.