An explosion injured as many as six people last night when a large steel grass roller blew up after it was put on a Mosgiel bonfire.

One person was injured in a house fire in Rotorua this morning.

Today is a special day for a little boy who has miraculously emerged from the aftermath of a car fire that nearly took his life.

When the Kaingaroa Forest Volunteer Fire Brigade membership dwindled to just four, the station was faced with closure.

Eight people have escaped a Papatoetoe house fire this evening. Two fire crews were called out to the blaze at 8.40pm and were still at the property doing salvage work at 9.15pm.

Firefighters are currently dealing with a large chemical spill at a freight yard in South Auckland.

Neighbours tried to save a man who was trapped inside his burning home in Titahi Bay this morning, but were driven back by thick smoke and flames.

A grandfather raced into a burning home to rescue his 3-year-old grandson.

A house has been seriously damaged in a fire in the Auckland suburb of Kelston today.

One of the first police to arrive at the scene of Australia’s worst house fire says the intensity of the blaze prevented the rescue of 11 people trapped inside.

Unitec spokeswoman Liz Phillips said an electrical fire broke out in a ceiling space in a building in the centre of the campus.

A truck driver was hospitalised after chemicals leaked from his truck near Taupo overnight, the fire service says.

Three people have been hospitalised after two Dunedin houses caught fire overnight, the fire service says.

A chemical fire has broken out off Hewletts Rd in Mt Maunganui tonight and emergency services have cordoned off the area.

The fire that destroyed four classrooms and a library at Kapiti Coast's oldest school is "devastating" says the principal.

One person was taken to hospital in a critical condition after a house fire in Otara last night.

In the distance, Natasha O'Brien could hear Jewels, her miniature Jack Russell, barking.

An East Coast man has been found not guilty of murder but guilty of the manslaughter of his partner, who burned to death in their Tikitiki home.

A High Court jury has been told by the Crown that a man accused of murder killed the mother of his three children "in the most horrible way" imaginable.

A High Court murder trial has been told that police lost an opportunity to gather forensic evidence during an East Coast homicide inquiry.

A house fire in Wellington was contained before it caused major damage to a two-storey home.

A large vegetation fire in Central Otago has been contained.