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.

Firefighters are battling a scrub fire in a remote part of rural Waikato this morning.

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.

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.

An elderly woman who was trapped and killed in a Wellington house fire will be formally identified in a post-mortem examination today.

A Wanganui fireman is now heading the country's firefighters union and says he wants to develop much closer and clearer relationships with the Fire Service on his watch.

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.