A fire in an excavator in the Grey Valley mid-afternoon yesterday is thought to have been caused by rats chewing the electrics.

Brian Lewis Halvorsen, aged 64, died after a fire destroyed his caravan at Club Waimea caravan park at about 8pm on Saturday.

There was no suspicious activity behind a fatal house fire in which one man died, police said today.

An early morning fire which ripped through a vacant block of flats in Hokitika is being treated as arson.

Firefighters have been called to a fire at Spring Hill Prison in the Waikato.

Richmond fire chief Ralph Lonsdale said the caravan went up "very, very fast".

Firefighters called to a fire at a set of flats in Petone last night arrived to found a body inside.

Blaze tore through the rear of a two-storey block of shops in Auckland.

Fire rips through intermediate school in Hawera.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, so they say. But what about when life gives you 100ha fires?

Two house fires in Tokoroa in the early hours of this morning are being treated as suspicious.

Firefighters battling a major fire in a West Auckland factory this evening will undergo decontamination after fears they have come into contact with dangerous toxic acids.

Widespread breaches of fire safety regulations are being discovered as multi-storey leaky apartments are pulled apart during weathertightness repairs.

Multiple calls to emergency services were made as a visible grass fire lit in Mount Roskill this afternoon.

Donations have poured in from around New Zealand for three sisters whose parents and young brother died in a Waimate fire two months ago.

He battled up to 500C heat and 18m flames to save a house and, for his efforts, was transferred to hospital suffering from heat exhaustion.

The unseasonably high temperatures and strong winds of "Hotober" fanned the flames of South Island fires yesterday.

Flights are at a standstill at Dunedin Airport and a large fire grew rapidly out of control this morning as strong winds batter Otago.

A Fire Service spokeswoman said the fire was growing, and was currently 2ha by 1.2ha in size.

An area of Nelson has been evacuated after a truck carrying gas cylinders caught fire causing some to explode.

A blaze the size of three rugby fields was battled by 18 crews last night at the edge of the Ashly Forest in Canterbury.

Five people were treated for suspected smoke inhalation after a fire broke out in a house in South Auckland this morning.

Police are treating four fires in a small area of Christchurch as suspicious following a scene investigation.

A classroom block at a school in Lower Hutt was severely damaged in a fire last night.

A Fire Service spokesman said five fire crews had been at the scene of the large fire Paraparaumu.

An investigator will today determine the cause of a blaze that ripped through a Dunedin property last night.

Fire Safety investigators say initial indications are that a large fire in Glendene on Friday night was cause by leaking LPG.

Firefighters successfully contained a large fire in the Auckland suburb of Glendene last night. It took seventeen fire crew to extinguish the fire at a house on Bancroft Ave after they were called to the blaze about 9pm.

Family awoke to a strong smell and the sight of thick black smoke.

New Zealand is likely to get a new, national fire service - but regions will get a high degree of control over how they operate.