Initial fears people may be inside soon passed.

Using paint and rocks, a woman deserted on an Auckland island for three nights wrote "Help me" on the beach.

The Fire Service received 402 calls to the emergency 111 line last night.

Emergency services are at the scene of a serious house fire in South Auckland.

Strong wind gusts are hampering the efforts of more than 600 firefighters who are fighting to contain 36 bush and grass fires across the state.

A fire that was rapidly spreading down a cliff in swanky Auckland suburb St Heliers has been extinguished.

The final moments of a fire brigade's fishing competition fundraiser were cut short when the call for help went out.

A house has gone up in flames in Manukau's Clover Park area.

Woman found on Browns Island was stranded for three nights before being rescued.

Drugs were allegedly found in the vicinity of a fire in an industrial unit on Burrows St today. A police spokeswoman told the Bay

Neighbours kicked in the door and broke windows of a burning house to check if anyone was inside.

A 49-year-old man faces six methamphetamine charges after a fire in Milford on Auckland's North Shore yesterday.

A baby has been injured in a large house fire in West Auckland this morning.

A commercial fishing vessel is at the centre of a gas leak in Tauranga this morning.

One man said he was driving along Beach Road in Milford when the ground shook, and a building exploded.

A blaze which killed a man at a block of flats in Invercargill does not appear to be suspicious, a Fire Service authority says.

A fire has affected the Maniototo Arts Centre in Ranfurly this morning.

A person screamed for sleeping residents to flee their homes as fire raced through a block of Invercargill flats early today.

Investigators of the huge blaze which destroyed a near century-old family business say they are unable to pinpoint the cause of the

A south Auckland home was set alight by a lightning bolt during yesterday's violent thunderstorms.

A two-storey home on the Kapiti Coast has been severely damaged in an early morning blaze.

A woman whose home was destroyed by fire at the weekend said she had been receiving threats. Donna Moon lost all her possessions

Masked intruders are being investigated by police in relation to two separate incidents.

Firefighters have been called to a house fire in Papatoetoe, South Auckland.

One person was transported to hospital after an Invercargill house was engulfed by fire this evening.

In the second fiery incident involving a plane at a United States airport, a FedEx plane caught fire today at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

An investigator has been called in to determine if a house fire in Southland is suspicious.

Fire investigators have narrowed down where Monday's blaze in Hamilton started, but just exactly what caused it remains unclear.

An unstable and fire-damaged wall will remain in place when fire investigators begin their painstaking work of trying to figure out

An unstable and fire-damaged wall is impeding an investigation into the blaze of a Hamilton tyre shop which was gutted by fire.