A former Commonwealth Games gold medallist has praised firefighters' efforts to retrieve his medals and sporting memorabilia after a fire destroyed most of his Auckland home.

Firefighters were able to retrieve medals from the Auckland home of a former weightlifting gold medallist after it was badly damaged by fire last night.

The multimillion-dollar home of former Commonwealth Games weightlifting gold medallist Tony Ebert went up in flames late last night.

A French vacationer scrambled to throw as many valuables as he could out of a burning building yesterday - only to watch the grass around them catch fire.

Firefighters have been battling a number of large rural fires across the North Island.

Firefighters are working to control a blaze at a hay shed in New Plymouth this morning.

Rural fire crews have remained at the scene of a large grass fire in Seddon in Marlborough overnight.

A man who was burning rubbish with petrol at his Bay of Plenty home suffered burns to his torso, arms and legs but managed to cover his face.

Four railway workers were “very lucky” to escape without injury after their truck caught fire inside a tunnel near Wellington this afternoon.

The son of an elderly couple who died in a house fire on Friday morning has paid tribute to his parents.

Armed police have been standing guard over the scene of a suspicious Whangarei fire but police won't say why guns were necessary.

A shed storing vintage steam engines in Ashburton was seriously damaged in a suspicious fire early today.

An elderly couple house-sitting a recently renovated property for their son were killed early yesterday when it went up in flames at Tolaga Bay, 50km north of Gisborne.

One person is dead and their elderly partner unaccounted for after a Tolaga Bay home they were house-sitting at was engulfed by a fire overnight.

'I wasn't involved,' says a man - jailed for a hostel fire in Australia which killed a tourist - whose house has been hit twice by fire in Wanganui.

A fire that started in a shopping trolley in a Wellington shopping centre is being treated as suspicious.

A Christian early childhood centre in Christchurch escaped damage after a suspicious fire on the property last night.

Farmers and rural householders are being warned about starting fires after a "crazy" seven hours by South Island firefighters tackling small rural blazes today.

Two young women and two children escaped a blaze which destroyed a Napier house in less than half an hour and closed the city's busiest thoroughfare last night.

A total fire ban is across Otago as authorities warn of extreme risk of a major blaze which could take weeks to put out.

Firefighters have contained a large fire at a car wrecking yard in Invercargill.

A plantation fire that blazed through Pines Beach in north Canterbury yesterday is being treated as suspicious.

Police are still unable to determine what caused a house fire that killed three people in November, but say they are committed to finding answers.

An online gift store in suburban Auckland has been badly damaged by a fire overnight.

Firefighters have managed to contain a large plantation fire north of Christchurch which at its peak saw the evacuation of 40 nearby homes.

Firefighters have managed to contain a large plantation fire north of Christchurch which at its peak saw the evacuation of 40 nearby homes.

A fire that spread through tinder-dry long grass near Tarras in Central Otago was on a farm belonging to the area's deputy rural fire chief.

As temperatures soar above 30C across parts of the country, so has demand for firefighters as tinder-dry conditions create the perfect environment for forest and scrub fires.