The infant siblings badly burned in a Gisborne car fire are likely to face dozens more operations and many weeks in hospital as they recover.

One person is dead and another is fighting for their life after a house fire in Tokoroa this evening.

The family of two children who were severely burned in a car fire in Gisborne last week are maintaining a bedside vigil as the pair continue to fight for their lives in hospital.

A hero first aider has described the moments he thought a three-year-girl had died after she was pulled from a horrific car fire in Gisborne.

Two pre-schoolers who were trapped in a burning car in Gisborne remain hospitalised in a serious condition.

Family and friends of the mother whose toddlers were badly burnt in a car fire after being left alone have defended her actions.

A three-year-old girl, seriously burnt in a car fire in Gisborne, has been transferred to the specialist burns unit at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland.

The Fire Service says a car fire in Gisborne that left two young children with life-threatening burns is a reminder of why children should not be left alone in cars.

Thirteen people, including children, have been killed after a fire broke out in a Muslim school in Rangoon because of a suspected electrical fault, police in Burma's main city say.

Six helicopters with monsoon buckets and seven ground firecrews battled a rapidly moving pine forest fire on Pahaoa Rd, east of Martinborough, yesterday that had engulfed 30 hectares by midday and was still burning.

A 50-year-old Warkworth man suffered burns to much of his body after a backyard fire exploded.

A one-year-old boy is in intensive care and due to have surgery for serious burns after falling into a fire.

A fire in an empty house in Christchurch overnight is believed to have been deliberately lit.

Drunk university students who set couches alight after being turfed out of parties are blaming police for inflaming tensions.

It appears the 54-year-old man saved from his burning Dunedin flat on Monday night may have been rescued twice, by different people.

Firefighters were this morning fighting a boat on fire at an Auckland marina.

Anger and a desire for vengeance, combined with alcohol, probably led a Mosgiel man to light fires causing $100,000 damage to his former partner's home, a judge says.

A Dunedin woman is being hailed as a hero after running into a burning City Council flat to pull a 54-year-old man to safety.

A "mindless" arson attack on a Scout hall in Wellington could have jeopardised children's Easter camping plans, the local Scout leader says.