A woman who wanted to flee Christchurch after becoming embroiled with a gang and set fire in her own flat has been jailed for more than four years.

Fire safety officers will investigate a suspicious blaze at an unused timber mill at Kaitaia.

A police guard has been set up outside a derelict Greymouth house that was the target of a suspected arson attack early today.

Fire fighters attending a blaze north of Taupo tonight were greeted with a large explosion from inside a burning factory.

The sole occupant of a newly-renovated Dunedin home extensively damaged in a fire fled the inferno after she was woken by a smoke alarm.

The wildfire burning in and around Yosemite National Park has become the fourth-largest conflagration in modern California history.

One house has been destroyed and another damaged after two fires in the South Island overnight.

A truck laden with newspapers ignited in a dramatic fire in Canterbury early this morning.

An Otago teenager is lucky to have escaped serious injury after a fireball erupted when she was cooking in a Pine Hill house on Tuesday.

Suspicion surrounds a blaze that engulfed a red-zoned property in Kaiapoi, north of Christchurch, overnight.

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.

A motorcycle cop's bike burst into flames when he stopped to question a Christchurch motorist this morning.

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.