A teenager accused of burning down a family home on Christmas Day has spoken for the first time.

Arsonists and "idiots" defied fire bans yesterday as at least five suspicious fires stretched firefighters to the limit.

As most Kiwis embrace the warm, dry weather, firefighters are racing to control fires that have ignited in tinder-dry areas.

A scrub fire is the latest in a series which have prompted Auckland Council to impose a complete fire ban on the region.

While firefighters yesterday continued to battle huge blazes in Victoria, floods swept through Queensland, shutting down roads, railways and airports as former cyclone Oswald inundated coastal regions.

The father of Kiwi triplets killed in a Doha fire says the most scientific piece of evidence is not being presented in a trial to decide culpability for the fatal fire.

A suspicious blaze that destroyed 200ha of scrub, bush and forestry on the Pouto Peninsula also wiped out vulnerable indigenous flora and fauna.

Auckland Council has announced a complete fire ban for the region, including Great Barrier, Kawau, Waiheke and the other Hauraki Gulf islands.

A large bush fire has caused a landslip that has closed a road between Papakura and Hunua Township, south of Auckland today.

Eric Bell has a message for anyone having a late night cook-up - don't go to bed with an element still on.

A staff member at the Doha daycare centre where New Zealand triplets died called her husband saying "no one will help" as she tried to evacuate children, a court has heard.

The army has apologised but denies it was reckless after two fires were started on the same day during separate training exercises in hot, dry conditions.

Fire crews are optimistic they have gained the upper hand over a huge blaze that has been burning on Great Barrier Island throughout the week.

New fires are burning on Great Barrier Island as firefighters work to strengthen containment lines with controlled vegetation burnoffs.

The Defence Force is battling a blaze in bushland at the Waiouru Military Camp in the central North Island, which started during a live fire exercise yesterday.

Firefighters continue to work on the perimeter of the Great Barrier Island fire which flared up overnight but stayed within containment lines.

Backpacks on mussels? Researchers at the University of Iowa attached wireless sensor packages to Mississippi river mussels that measure how open their shells are.

A huge bush fire that has raged across Great Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf for more than a day is under control tonight.

The New Zealand Defence Force will investigate how a live ammunition training exercise at an Army base near Christchurch caused a large scrub fire today.

Northland farmer Susan Bradley moved stock and her family were ready to evacuate as a fierce forest fire encroached on her home near Kelly's Bay yesterday.

Firefighters were "planning for the worst" last night as a huge scrub fire burned across Great Barrier Island, forcing the evacuation of homes, businesses and a medical centre.

About 40 rural volunteer firefighters are battling a blaze threatening homes and businesses on Great Barrier Island, off the trip of the Coromandel Peninsula.

About 40 rural volunteer firefighters are battling a blaze threatening homes and businesses on Great Barrier Island, off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula.