Fire Service bosses are seeking law changes making it compulsory for rental properties to have smoke alarms installed and maintained.

A baby is in a critical condition following a house fire in Mount Wellington this morning.

Mourners are today gathering to farewell two of the three young people who died in a fierce Hamilton house fire last week.

Emergency services were called to the house in Malone Road Mount Wellington and found it "well ablaze".

The families of three house fire victims are "horrified" that gatherings intended to pay respects to their loved ones have turned violent.

Greg Johnston's life was shattered the moment he received a phone call to say his little sister was unaccounted for in a devastating house fire.

The head of fire investigations in the country says the recent spike in fatal house fires has "no rhyme or reason".

One person has suffered burns after a family narrowly escaped from a house fire in Christchurch overnight.

Victim identification and a forensic examination at the site of a fatal Hamilton house fire involving specialist cadaver dogs is continuing after three people were killed on Saturday.

It wasn't meant to be a big party - just a gathering of a few friends of flatmates at the old Collingwood St villa to welcome a new flatmate.

Parents of a young woman who died with two others in a house fire say it's a 'bloody nightmare', as police seek cellphone footage of a party held that night.

Crowds gathered and bagpipe music played as a hearses containing the bodies were driven from the burnt remains of the house where three people died.

Power has now been restored to thousands of Auckland homes after an outage earlier this evening left them in the dark as stormy weather batters the city.

Three people have died and four have been treated by ambulance staff following a fire at a Hamilton home overnight. Waikato Detective Senior Sergeant Graham Pitkethley said the cause of the fire at the two storey wooden home on Collingwood St was unexplained and was being treated as suspicious until confirmed otherwise.

A Green Island man was left with burnt hands and a garden shed minus one wall after an explosion during a drug-making operation last month.

At least three people have been killed following a large house fire in Hamilton early today.

About 60 fire service staff battled a fierce blaze at a Northland plastics factory overnight.

Friends of a woman who lost a child and her home in a house fire have set up a fundraising page to help the family.

The mother of a 3-year-old boy killed in a Hamilton house fire yesterday is still fighting for her life.

Four Housing New Zealand families have been forced from their Stokes Valley homes overnight following a suspicious fire.

A suspicious fire in an Ashburton garage where a family of three were sleeping was reported by a distressed child in the dead of night.

A fire at a Dargaville fertiliser plant has been contained and has been brought under control by the fire service.

The Fire Service responded to 60 firework-related calls across the country last night.

Thick smoke and falling ash surrounded Lynn Bennett as she fled the huge flames that came within metres of her Woodside home yesterday.

The fire, along the ridge of the Maungatua Hill Range, forced the evacuation of a number of properties on nearby McKendry Rd this morning.