A house fire and a big blaze that flared up when a house being transported on two trucks hit power lines has kept firefighters busy.

A teenager has been arrested over a fire at a karate club in Invercargill.

A 10-year-old boy sent to his room to practise his times tables accidentally started a fatal house fire by playing with a lighter.

Fire that claimed the life of respected member of the Tuvaluan community in West Auckland is believed to have been caused by children playing with a lighter.

An investigation into a house fire in Ranui last night is centred around a bedroom where a cigarette lighter was found.

A man who died at a West Auckland house fire last night was trying to rescue children from the blaze.

Firefighters were called to the scene of a blaze at the Milson Foundry in Palmerston North this afternoon.

An Auckland firefighter who has been to "thousands" of call-outs has found out in the worst way possible what it's like to be on the other end of the emergency.

An elderly man may have died after getting "excited" by big flames during a farm burn-off in rural Canterbury last year, a coroner has heard.

A large forest fire south of Dunedin, near the small village of Waipori Falls, is believed to be under control.

Hamilton firefighters had to intervene between a couple who started arguing after a fire began in their car.

A faulty dryer caused a fire in a rural Waikato home last night but it's appliance accomplice - the handy washing machine - helped douse the flames.

Occupants of an Auckland apartment block escaped serious injury overnight, after a fire broke out in the unit.

A suspicious blaze in a 100-year-old school building follows six previous incidents of vandalism since March this year.

An electric cat mat was behind an inferno that damaged a house in Auckland this morning - one of three animal rescues today.

A fire at a community recycling depot in Alexandra is being investigated as an arson attack, with a detective saying it was clear a fire had been "deliberately lit".

The Fire Service were called to Central Otago Wastebusters on Boundary Rd in Alexandra just after 8pm and arrived to find the building "well ablaze".

Residents were among those who tried to save their screaming neighbours from a fatal house fire which is believed to have claimed the lives of an adult and child.

Fire Service spokesman David Meikle said three crews went to the blaze just before 5.30am.

Fire investigators were today sifting through the charred remains of a classroom block gutted by fire at Hari Hari early last night.

Spontaneous combustion is believed to have triggered a large fire at an Auckland Laundromat this morning.

Nathan Jacobs had been away from his Arrowtown home for only about 20 minutes last night, before returning to find three fire crews dousing it in water.

At least two classrooms at South Westland Area School, in the small West Coast town of Hari Hari, were destroyed in a fire last night.

Two Nelson renters escaped a fire which started in the lounge of their two story house last night.

Two children who were home alone when a fire broke out in a bedroom are tonight being housed by family members.

A woman who died after she was badly burned in a Christchurch house fire last week has been named.

The occupants of a Waikato house may have had a narrow escape overnight after a fire ripped through the building.

Owners of a house in Ohai will return to find their home ravaged by fire, after a blaze tore through the property early this morning.

Firefighters are trying to contain a fire in a shed at Matamata, which is full of palm kernel.

A woman badly burned in a Christchurch house fire last week has died.