Emergency teams searched burned-out buildings and cars in Tasmania yesterday as police warned that a number of people might have died.

Tasmanians spent another anxious night in evacuation centres as bushfires burned out of control throughout the state.

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.

Three sheds behind a Bay of Islands home caught fire early this morning.

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.

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

Seven months ago their lives were a happy chaos as they raised energetic and vibrant triplets Lillie, Jackson and Willsher.

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.