A fire which gutted the historic Aparima Tavern at Riverton yesterday spread "unbelievably quickly", a customer says.

A woman will appear in court today after a suspicious Invercargill house fire where firefighters pulled out an unconscious occupant.

A member of the public chased an arsonist attempting to set fire to a vacant Waikato building.

Two buildings in the North Island have been gutted by fire this morning. Fire fighters had to be decontaminated for asbestos.

A woman was just moments from death when she was rescued from a house fire in Invercargill early this morning, one of the firefighters who saved her says.

Plumes of smoke were sent into the air as fire burst out at a liquor store in Mt Wellington this afternoon.

For Hawkes Bay woman Alicia Buxton, some of her most precious possessions were the little boxes of "firsts".

Fire safety officers are investigating the cause of a Dunedin house fire in which a dog died yesterday.

A young mother who died in an house fire had disconnected one of her smoke alarms earlier in the evening because it kept beeping, according to a coroner's finding.

Police say charges will not be laid in relation to a car fire in Gisborne that badly burned two children.

An Auckland family's home has been gutted by fire just six months after they moved in.

The sight of a young couple trapped in a burning car with a power line draped over it, calling their children to say goodbye, spurred two firefighters into action.

Two Horowhenua College students have been rushed to Palmerston North hospital today after a chemical fire at the school.

A fire at Christchurch Hospital this morning was sparked by workers using a grinder.

The residents of a Christchurch home lost most of their possessions in one of three fires in the South Island since last night.

Oamaru boy Aljay Rankin, 10, is being praised for his clear thinking and quick action in saving his sister and home from a potentially disastrous fire.

LPG cylinders helped fuel a massive house blaze in West Auckland that took firefighters hours to bring under control.

Faced with a quickly escalating fire at her home, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett grabbed what she thought were her dearest personal items - her Cabinet papers.

The father of 2-year-old New Zealand triplets who died in a Qatar mall fire just over a year ago has expressed his relief at guilty verdicts in the case.

A firefighter became trapped in a fatal house fire when a ceiling collapsed on top of him, pinning him to the floor.