Police are investigating a suspicious fire at a Nelson pub over the weekend - the second blaze to hit the establishment in less than a year.

Fire investigators are trying to establish the cause of a large blaze at an Auckland factory last night.

A huge bushfire raging on the western boundary of Yosemite National Park has led California's Governor, Jerry Brown, to declare a state of emergency.

Colleagues of a Wellington firefighter badly burned after becoming separated from his mates during an industrial blaze are "pretty cut up" over what happened.

A firefighter seriously burnt in a blaze north of Wellington yesterday is being transferred to Auckland for specialist treatment.

An Auckland grandmother has been charged with murder by arson, stealing $12,500 from her employer and damaging their products by fire on three occasions.

An investigation and a separate review will be carried out into today's blaze in Petone that left a firefighter in hospital with burns.

Three members of the Austrian ski team here for the Winter Games have been left without passports or spare clothes after a fire engulfed their luxury lodge.

Firefighters saved two Masterton homes from flames with only moments to spare after a blaze engulfed a residential garage yesterday.

One person has died in a house fire in Pongaroa, south of Dannevirke overnight. Fire services found it well alight on arrival.

A "brave'' 12-year-old girl who woke to flames in her Christchurch home this morning managed to wake the rest of her family and escape the inferno.

Police have referred two teenagers to Youth Aid after a school administration block was gutted by a blaze just before 4am yesterday.

Fire crews in Christchurch were last night battling a blaze at an abandoned "red zone" house.

A wheelie-bin arsonist left mounds of melted plastic and a Dunedin suburb "saturated" with police patrols.

Residents of an Upper Hutt house escaped safely today after a fire extensively damaged the property.

A fire at an abandoned house in east Christchurch early this morning is being treated as suspicious.

A mother's joy at seeing her son picked to play for the Tall Blacks has been marred by the shock of losing her new $2.2 million childcare centre in a fire.

A fire at a childcare centre on Auckland's North Shore early this morning is being treated as suspicious.

Valuable books are thought to be safe after a fire at Victoria University's library in Wellington this morning was sparked in an acetylene tank.