Five school staff are being treated for smoke inhalation after at fire at St Kentigern's School for girls.

The Waimate Hotel in Manaia, south of New Plymouth, has been destroyed by fire.

A Hamilton family had a lucky escape from a fire which swept through a Dinsdale house early this morning.

Raucous couch-burning students in Dunedin have accidentally set a house on fire during their partying.

A 41-foot launch is on fire in the Marlborough Sounds.

A corporate box at a Nelson speedway was gutted by fire overnight.

Homes were evacuated as 18 fire crews and two helicopters battled a blaze which destroyed a house in Canterbury and put one person in hospital with burn injuries.

A firefighter was injured after falling through a staircase in a burning Grey Lynn house early today.

The blaze broke out at Glinks Gully at about midnight.

Seven fire crews and a helicopter have brought a large fire north of Pines Beach in Canterbury under control.

A man injured in a fire while doing demolition work at Marsden Pt oil refinery remained in Whangarei Hospital yesterday.

At its peak the fire was believed to be 1km in length and had 11 crews working to contain it.

Westland High School students and staff were back in a school routine yesterday, although not from the actual school premises, which remain cordoned off following the fire.

The vehicle, in a southbound lane near the Papakura exit, was burning fiercely when fire crews arrived at the scene.

A fire destroyed a home in Middlemarch yesterday and left the occupants, including a mother and her two sons, counting their losses.

Firefighters are battling a large house fire on Roscommon Road, Manurewa.

A 17-year-old will appear in court next week in relation to the fire on Paritutu Rock in New Plymouth last Friday.

Firefighters battled a blaze at a student accommodation complex in central Wellington early this morning.

Several suspicious fires set on and outside a house in Christchurch are being investigated by emergency services.

Fire crews are still at the scene of a major fire that has destroyed a large building in Hawera overnight.

Photographs taken inside Westland High School show the devastating extent of the damage after the fire on Monday.

A person whose fireworks led to a large blaze at Paritutu Rock on Friday night has been tracked down by police.

Police are warning people to stay away from the area near school on fire due to toxic smoke.

A man and his young daughter escaped a "massive" fire which destroyed their family home on Auckland's Waiheke Island early this morning.

Emergency services are currently at a large fire in the suburb of New Lynn, West Auckland.

A house has been destroyed in a scrub fire that is still burning on Waiheke Island this morning.

A large fire in New Plymouth is thought to have been started by fireworks.

All people feared to be inside a house that was on fire in Hamilton are safe and accounted for.

Five highly experienced New Zealand Defence Force firefighters have been deployed to battle remote bush fires in northwest Tasmania.