Two firefighters suffered injuries likely to keep them off work for days while battling a "wall of fire" at a Wanganui house.

Parents of children killed in the Doha Mall fire last year say they have been attacked by defence lawyers in a hearing to determine responsibility for the 19 deaths.

Emergency services in three states were on high alert yesterday as a heatwave blasted southern Australia.

An Invercargill high school has lost two new classrooms and a vehicle, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, in a large fire today.

Families fought flames with spades, garden hoses and shoes to protect their Havelock North homes yesterday.

A video of a speedboat dousing a burning vessel by swerving next to it has gone viral on the internet.

Christchurch woman Peta Pool and her grandson Justice faced a long drive back to Canterbury after their pop top caravan burned to the ground yesterday.

A West Auckland family escaped from an inferno after their house was deliberately set on fire early on Christmas morning.

A fire that forced a family of eight to flee their west Auckland home early today was deliberately lit, police say.

A Hastings teen is being hailed a hero after jumping a 3-metre fence, dragging a sleeping man from his bed and extinguishing a flaming frying pan.

The parents of 2-year-old triplets who died in a Doha mall fire will be surrounded by family as they face their first Christmas without their "three little monkeys".

Sprinklers in a Doha mall could have stopped the smoke that claimed the lives of 19 people including young New Zealand triplets - if they were working.

Red, white and blue cars were set alight on different streets over a four-hour period in Upper Hutt last night.

A volunteer firefighter failed to mention his conviction for arson when he applied for duty with a rural fire force.

A volunteer firefighter failed to mention his conviction for arson when he applied for duty with a rural fire force.

Rural landowners risk hefty bills for fires that take more than an hour to fight, Wairarapa principal rural fire officer Phil Wishnowsky has warned.

A Nelson pub was gutted by a suspicious fire that sparked fears for an adjacent petrol station early this morning.