A man suffered burns to his arm in one of three suspicious house fires in Christchurch overnight.

A fire broke out at a chicken shed south of Auckland this morning but it is not known whether any birds were inside.

Police will use dental records to identify a man's body found in a farm house south of Auckland which was destroyed by fire last night.

Police are investigating after a man's body was found in a burning building south of Auckland last night.

One person is dead after a house fire in Auckland this afternoon.

A fire in Te Puke caused significant damage to a 120 square metre house in the early hours of this morning.

Fire safety crews are investigating a suspicious blaze in the Christchurch suburb of Halswell.

Rescue teams were late yesterday trying to reach a crashed waterbomber that sparked a new blaze in remote bushland south of Sydney, as the major State Mine fire strengthened again and an emergency warning was issued.

Residents of the NSW Blue Mountains are beginning to flee ahead of what's feared to be the most serious day of the state's bushfire crisis.

As the NSW bushfire emergency enters its seventh day, firefighters are being hampered by lightning strikes which are igniting new blazes.

An Aussie firefighter who slipped and fell into a blazing inferno was unfazed by the close call and, after clambering out, picked up his hose and carried on.

Harry Fuller is showing me around what used to be his family's Blue Mountains home - now just a jumble of rubble and corrugated iron..

Thousands of firefighters are bracing for what is expected to be the worst day of the bushfire crisis in New South Wales as temperatures soar and searing winds return.

Firefighters are working to link two out-of-control fires burning in the NSW Blue Mountains in an effort to starve them of fuel and prevent a "mega-fire" forming.

With fires still burning across New South Wales, it's time to have a look at the role climate change might have played. Are the conditions we're seeing natural variation, or part of a long term trend?

As firefighters and ordinary residents toil at the black-red coalface of NSW's bushfire crisis, their story of heroism and anguish is being told to the world.

The unique landscape that made disaster inevitable could now help create a megafire engulfing vast areas to the west of Sydney and threatening the outskirts of Australia's biggest city.

New Zealand is likely to send specialist fire fighting personnel soon to help battle the New South Wales bushfires, Prime Minister John Key says.

Firefighters battle bushfires in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, NSW in Australia.

Even without the official tally it looks like the fires that started yesterday in Blue Mountains will be the most costly in terms of property since 1968. But how have they come about?

Pets, spare clothes, photo albums, computer equipment and important documents.

Firefighters continue to wage a relentless battle against massive fires that threaten to engulf the entire Blue Mountains region west of Sydney as temperatures rise again into the 30s.

Thousands of firefighters, some drafted in from other states, will continue attacking massive fronts in New South Wales in a battle that is likely to last for weeks.