A large fire which broke out at a supermarket on Waiheke Island this afternoon has been extinguished.

The family of a 6-year-old girl killed in an Auckland house fire has urged parents to "hold their children close".

A man was taken to hospital with burns to his face and hands when an explosion at a Dannevirke house blew a bedroom apart yesterday.

Fire crews are battling a fire at the Sanitarium factory, with black smoke seen billowing out of the roof.

A teenager who admitted throwing fireworks into a popular Auckland forest, causing thousands of dollars damage, said he was just trying to look "cool" in front of his mates.

The death of a 6-year-old girl in a house fire in Auckland today has led to calls for matches to be kept away from children.

One person has been taken to hospital following an early morning blaze in a central Wellington office building.

A scrub fire is causing delays to motorway traffic near the Puhoi tunnel, outside Auckland.

The DoC could be facing one of its worst possum infestations in decades, partly because workers who helped with pest control were sent to fight bushfires in Australia.

Police are standing guard outside the remains of an abandoned Christchurch house which was destroyed in a suspicious fire early today.

A pizza oven fire has sparked an evacuation of Auckland's Langham Hotel.

A disgruntled customer is not being ruled out as the culprit behind a suspicious blaze at a Work and Income office in Auckland this morning.

Dwindling volunteer numbers and a rising number of non-emergency medical callouts were some of the key concerns raised at an annual firefighter's conference this weekend.

A Far North marae hit by fire this week had been the subject of infighting over a new building on the site, a marae leader says.

Two fires last night - one deemed suspicious - are being looked at by Christchurch fire safety officers.

Te Uri o Hikihiki Marae at Mokau is engulfed in flames, with firefighters battling the blaze.