Latest fromFires

Girl helps save family from Chch inferno
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.

Teens admit school fire (+video)
Police have referred two teenagers to Youth Aid after a school administration block was gutted by a blaze just before 4am yesterday.

Elderly fire victim sent unreleased novel
A random act of kindness brought 92-year-old fire victim Pearl Sanger close to tears after she received a signed novel from writer Lee Child, not yet released in NZ.

Fire at 'red zone' house in Chrischurch
Fire crews in Christchurch were last night battling a blaze at an abandoned "red zone" house.

Arsonist sets wheelie bins ablaze
A wheelie-bin arsonist left mounds of melted plastic and a Dunedin suburb "saturated" with police patrols.

Blaze mars mum's Tall Blacks joy
A mother's joy at seeing her son picked to play for the Tall Blacks has been marred by the shock of losing her new $2.2 million childcare centre in a fire.

Suspicious fire in Albany
A fire at a childcare centre on Auckland's North Shore early this morning is being treated as suspicious.

Fire at Victoria University library
Valuable books are thought to be safe after a fire at Victoria University's library in Wellington this morning was sparked in an acetylene tank.

'End of an era' as tavern destroyed
A fire which gutted the historic Aparima Tavern at Riverton yesterday spread "unbelievably quickly", a customer says.

Woman in court today after suspicious house fire
A woman will appear in court today after a suspicious Invercargill house fire where firefighters pulled out an unconscious occupant.

Fire victim moments from death
A woman was just moments from death when she was rescued from a house fire in Invercargill early this morning, one of the firefighters who saved her says.

Raw: Fire in Mt Wellington
Plumes of smoke were sent into the air as fire burst out at a liquor store in Mt Wellington this afternoon.

Two blazes keep firefighters busy
A garage, a ute and a fishing launch have been destroyed in two fires in the Far North.

Tokoroa house fire treated as suspicious
A blaze which tore through a house and car in Tokoroa this morning is being treated as suspicious.

Blaze claims family treasures
For Hawkes Bay woman Alicia Buxton, some of her most precious possessions were the little boxes of "firsts".

Dunedin house fire that killed dog investigated
Fire safety officers are investigating the cause of a Dunedin house fire in which a dog died yesterday.

Fatal fire: Alarm turned off
A young mother who died in an house fire had disconnected one of her smoke alarms earlier in the evening because it kept beeping, according to a coroner's finding.