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

The head teacher at a Northland kindergarten has made a plea to the community to help catch the culprits who are destroying their playground with vandalism that now includes an arson attack.

The fire was covering at least 1 hectare of tussock grass between the ocean and the airport. It was windy and the fire spreading fast, a Fire Service spokesman said.

A fire has significantly damaged two vehicle testing stations in a Nelson commercial building.

Forty years after 15 people died in the firebombing of Brisbane's Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub, controversy and conspiracy theories still surround what was until the Port Arthur massacre, Australia's worst mass murder.

A Rotorua woman whose home was torched by her ex-partner is shocked he has been released from jail after serving just over one-third of his sentence.

A discarded cigarette butt has been blamed for a blaze that wreaked $250,000 worth of damage to a shed, vehicles and equipment at a Masterton garden supply firm.

About eight hectares of forest has been burned by a blaze in rural Masterton, with crews still on site last night to keep the fire under control.