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.

Northland's tinder-dry conditions caused a quad bike fire to extend into a blaze which threatened homes and which took four fire crews and two helicopters to extinguish.

The body of an elderly woman who was trapped in her Wellington home as a fire ripped through will be recovered today.

Police will tomorrow start investigating the cause of a Wellington house fire that killed one elderly person today.

Fire destroyed more than 3ha of land and threatened homes in two separate Bay of Plenty blazes - one of which is believed to have been deliberately lit.

Three houses worth a total of almost $2.5 million in the Auckland suburb of Westmere will have to be rebuilt after an arson attack on one being renovated.

A large scrub fire in the Cashmere Hills above Christchurch could be seen clearly from the city overnight.

Emergency services have been called to a fire at a Rotorua paint shop early this morning where one person has been hospitalised.

A volunteer firefighter pulled a man from a room engulfed in flames as a fierce blaze early this morning razed one home and left only a blackened shell of the next door house.

A man was heard screaming in pain as a storage shed complex north of urban Christchurch erupted in flames this afternoon.

Two women had to run for their lives after the car they were in burst into flames and started a 2000sq m scrub fire that threatened homes in Welcome Bay.

Dozens of firefighters continue to battle a large scrub fire burning north of Auckland since Saturday.

A Taumarunui man has been charged with arson over two fires on a rural Kakahi property last week.