An elaborate New York mansion featured in Taylor Swift's Blank Space music video has been severely damaged by fire.

A large grass fire has forced the closure of State Highway in Canterbury.

Residents of a Christchurch house ravaged by a "turret of flame" in a fire overnight had only been there for a week, a neighbour says.

A man suffered serious burns to most of his body after the boat he was in burst into flames while he was trying to fill the tank with petrol.

A house fire has destroyed a property in Wellington over night.

A man has admitted setting fire to a house he was building with his ex-partner, dousing it in kerosene and watching it burn as he drank wine on the lawn.

A dad and three children escaped uninjured when their car burst into flames in Queenstown.

Efforts to contain a large scrub fire which ripped through more than 300ha at Arthurs Pass this week may take longer than initially anticipated, after rising temperatures saw hotspots flare up yesterday afternoon.

Tauranga police are investigating a suspicious fire which occurred in Tareha Lane in Te Maunga last night.

A scrub fire that spread across 330ha of the Southern Alps may have started in separate areas, police said yesterday as firefighters battled to bring the blaze under control.

A teenage farmhand became an accidental hero after keeping a potentially disastrous scrub fire at bay.

Two cyclists and a tractor driver could hold the key to working out how a massive scrub fire started near Arthurs Pass yesterday.

"I saw a person burning from the waist up". Witnesses have described their horror at seeing a woman catch fire at a Dunedin petrol station yesterday.

A woman is in hospital in Dunedin after suffering serious burns at a service station.

"We thought we had it covered''. An investigation has been launched into what caused a steam train to start 21 fires south of Oamaru.

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.

An "immediate and large-scale response" has been credited with bringing a large grass fire in Marlborough under control.

A house fire which took the lives of an elderly couple living in their son's home at Tolaga Bay was caused by a pot left on a gas stove.

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.