Firefighters are battling steep terrain and limited water supplies to contain a large scrub fire near a pine forest in Dome Valley north of Auckland this afternoon.

A helicopter pilot needed medical treatment for ash in his eyes as firefighters battled a massive forest fire last night.

Firefighters battle a large forest fire north of Auckland. Video supplied by Daniel Fenning

Firefighters are battling a large forest fire north of Auckland. A helicopter with monsoon bucket, five pumps and two water tankers are assisting at the scene.

The cause of a house fire north of Whangarei overnight is being investigated.

Western Bay firefighters are on high alert with the region's fire risk at a three-year high.

The scrub fire which raged in Happy Valley overnight is being treated as suspicious until the cause is known, fire services say.

Witnesses are being asked to come forward following a series of suspicious rural fires west of Hamilton early this morning.

A scrub fire north of Auckland has grown six times in size over the course of today.

The residents of a rural house engulfed by a suspicious fire last night are incredibly lucky to have escaped, police say.

Four fire engines and five tankers are at the Chertsey Kyle Road fire which has spread down a 400 metre tree line and destroyed a hay stack.

A woman was lucky to escape with her life from an exploding house in Wanganui East early on Saturday morning.

A man will appear in court today charged with murder after a fatal house fire near Tikitiki on the East Coast last October.

A 19-year-old woman who emerged from a burning Northland house following an explosion was hosed down by neighbours until emergency services arrived.

A Far North fire boss has had a gutsful of "stupid people" ignoring a total fire ban and putting lives and property at risk, with 37 fire callouts in the district so far this year, including two yesterday.

A Northland woman has died in hospital after she was severely burnt in a gas explosion.

A dog that refused to stop barking when a fire broke out helped save a mother and her two children from the blaze in the bedroom of a Wanganui house.

Four people have been hospitalised after a fire at Wanganui last night.

A woman who has suffered burns to 70 per cent of her body had just arrived home when an explosion occurred, a resident who came to her help says.