The first of the funerals for three Hamilton house-fire victims will be tomorrow, as some of the grieving families prepare to speak publicly for the first time today.

One person has suffered burns after a family narrowly escaped from a house fire in Christchurch overnight.

Victim identification and a forensic examination at the site of a fatal Hamilton house fire involving specialist cadaver dogs is continuing after three people were killed on Saturday.

It wasn't meant to be a big party - just a gathering of a few friends of flatmates at the old Collingwood St villa to welcome a new flatmate.

Parents of a young woman who died with two others in a house fire say it's a 'bloody nightmare', as police seek cellphone footage of a party held that night.

Crowds gathered and bagpipe music played as a hearses containing the bodies were driven from the burnt remains of the house where three people died.

Power has now been restored to thousands of Auckland homes after an outage earlier this evening left them in the dark as stormy weather batters the city.

Three people have died and four have been treated by ambulance staff following a fire at a Hamilton home overnight. Waikato Detective Senior Sergeant Graham Pitkethley said the cause of the fire at the two storey wooden home on Collingwood St was unexplained and was being treated as suspicious until confirmed otherwise.

A Green Island man was left with burnt hands and a garden shed minus one wall after an explosion during a drug-making operation last month.

An Asian custom that has caught on for weddings and birthdays could soon be against in the law in Auckland, and that's not impressing some retailers.

About 60 fire service staff battled a fierce blaze at a Northland plastics factory overnight.

Friends of a woman who lost a child and her home in a house fire have set up a fundraising page to help the family.

The mother of a 3-year-old boy killed in a Hamilton house fire yesterday is still fighting for her life.

Four Housing New Zealand families have been forced from their Stokes Valley homes overnight following a suspicious fire.

A suspicious fire in an Ashburton garage where a family of three were sleeping was reported by a distressed child in the dead of night.

A fire at a Dargaville fertiliser plant has been contained and has been brought under control by the fire service.

The fire, along the ridge of the Maungatua Hill Range, forced the evacuation of a number of properties on nearby McKendry Rd this morning.

A controversial plan to ban domestic open fires and old woodburners in Auckland has been kicked to touch until at least next year.

A fire which destroyed a community hall near Tauranga last night has been labelled suspicious by authorities.

Operators of an almost-built cafe in Auckland's Cornwall Park that was gutted by a deliberately lit fire on Sunday are considering temporary replacement options.

Several small bushfires are burning in northwest South Australia after a barrage of lightning strikes overnight.

The driver of a speeding car which caught fire at the end of a bizarre police chase had to turn himself in after dense bush and gorse proved too rough, a witness says.

A fire at an Auckland mosque that has been at the centre of allegations of extremist Islamic teaching is being treated as suspicious.

Police are investigating whether a fire at an Auckland mosque that has been at the centre of allegations of extremist Islamic teaching was deliberately lit.

A fire that gutted a million-dollar cafe in one of the country's most popular parks is being treated as suspicious.

A driver speeding at 150km/h dropped a hitch-hiker off on the side of the road before continuing to flee police until his car caught fire.