A mother and her five children had their Mangere home destroyed in a fire this morning but luckily no one was hurt thanks to a working smoke alarm.

A volunteer fireman, paged to attend a car fire, was shocked when he stepped out of his house and realised it was his own vehicle ablaze.

Fire fighters in Invercargill are battling a large house fire this evening.

A man dragged from the garage of his Tokoroa property after his house caught fire has died.

More than 1,000 firefighters and 100 helicopters are battling the huge fire that forced the evacuation of Fort McMurray in western Canada. But officials say they need rain to make real progress.

A barn on a property in Carterton has been engulfed in flames.

It's believed fireworks caused a large fire on Canterbury's Port Hills last night.

A blaze which severely damaged a Hamilton bakery was caused by a deep fryer being left on.

The Porirua house where Pita Tekira shot police dog Gazza was badly damaged in a fire last night.

The death of a 79-year old Whanganui woman in a house fire could have been prevented with a working smoke alarm.

Firefighters in Dunedin are tackling a fire in a unit, which is threatening properties next door.

Two fires in Feilding early this morning are thought to be connected, and are being treated as suspicious.

Five fire crews are at the scene of a blaze that appears to have broken out in a campervan in Christchurch.

Firefighters are battling a large blaze on State Highway 1 south of Taupo this morning which has claimed three buildings on one property.

Fire investigators have launched an investigation into a suspicious fire in South Auckland tonight.

An elderly woman pulled unconscious from a burning house last night has died.

A house in the process of being sold has been destroyed by fire in Northland.

A Hamilton apartment block that severely damaged by fire early today is believed to have started after an occupant fell asleep smoking a cigarette, neighbours say.

An ammonia leak that threatened to force the evacuation of Bluff has been contained.

Fire services are searching for a person in a South Island property that had caught fire after they received reports the home was inhabited.

A fire that engulfed an Auckland home this evening has now been extinguished.

Fire crews were last night fighting a fire at a commercial property in the northern Waikato settlement of Tuakau.

A building has been severely damaged in a fire at a West Auckland beach this morning, with fire crews rushing to the scene at 9.46am.

A mother and infant were forced to seek safety on the balcony of their fifth-floor apartment during a fire in central Auckland tonight.

Six fire trucks were called to a fire at a two-storey bungalow in Ponsonby this afternoon.

The Fire Service is attending a large house fire in West Auckland.

Nobody was injured in a fire that "severely damaged" a Horowhenua house last night, but it's unclear if anyone was inside when flames took hold.

A person is in hospital suffering from smoke inhalation after a fire broke out at a quarry used to film a climatic battle scene in the Lord of the Rings.