A huge fire has engulfed a Chilean port city registered as a World Heritage site for its historic collection of wooden buildings and railways.

A raging fire leaped from hilltop to hilltop in the colorful port city of Valparaiso, killing at 11 people and destroying over 500 homes.

'There's quite a lot of devastation in there'. It took more than 90 firefighters to bring a massive blaze in Gore under control at a commercial building.

A North Korean official has been executed with a flame-thrower, South Korean media has reported.

Residents in a block of four North Shore flats rushed to wake each other up after a fire ripped through their building last night.

Smoke from a fire which has been burning for more than 12 hours at a Wellington storage unit is not a major health threat, medical authorities say.

Wellington Fire Service assistant area commander Paul Smith said they were waiting on heavy machinery to open up the unit.

A scrub fire which was last night threatening homes and lifestyle blocks near Papakura has been brought under control.

A coffee shop at the end of Auckland's Devonport Ferry Terminal has gone up in flames this morning, briefly disrupting services.

Two men who pulled the drivers from burning vehicles moments before they were engulfed in flames have been honoured for their bravery.

A potential disaster was narrowly avoided at a Hamilton petrol station last night after an agitated man allegedly set fire to a car and assaulted a man.

A person is dead and seven injured following a caravan and house fire at Invercargill early today.

A downtown Auckland apartment building has been evacuated after a fire that reportedly broke out inside a restaurant on the ground floor.

A huge fire at Taheke, in South Hokianga, is likely to take days and cost tens of thousands of dollars to put out.

Fire investigators are looking into the causes of fires in Timaru and Christchurch overnight.