Northland farmer Susan Bradley moved stock and her family were ready to evacuate as a fierce forest fire encroached on her home near Kelly's Bay yesterday.

Firefighters were "planning for the worst" last night as a huge scrub fire burned across Great Barrier Island, forcing the evacuation of homes, businesses and a medical centre.

About 40 rural volunteer firefighters are battling a blaze threatening homes and businesses on Great Barrier Island, off the trip of the Coromandel Peninsula.

About 40 rural volunteer firefighters are battling a blaze threatening homes and businesses on Great Barrier Island, off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula.

Fire crews from across the region have rushed to fight a large blaze in a community centre at Upper Moutere in Nelson.

Police have attempted to lift fingerprints from alarm boxes at an Auckland apartment building engulfed in fire on Sunday to try to establish who turned the system off.

A large scrub fire that endangered buildings in Taupo yesterday has been extinguished.

A scrub fire in Taupo which endangered buildings in the area this afternoon appears to have been deliberately lit.

A Welcome Bay resident who lit a non-permitted fire on his property which quickly got out of control at the weekend could be prosecuted or have to pay the bill for putting the fire out.

Firefighters have extinguished a large vegetation fire on Great Barrier Island overnight.

Fireworks are believed to have been responsible for a large fire in the crater of Auckland's Mt Eden early this morning.

Skies around the country have been looking noticeably more hazy orange and bronze-coloured in the past few days as smoke from Australia's scorching bushfires reaches us.

A young woman raced into a smoke-filled corridor to warn neighbours about the fire engulfing their downtown Auckland apartment building after the smoke alarm system failed to go off.

Fires raged up and down the country yesterday stretching emergency services to "maximum capacity".

Australia's hopes are now focused on the monsoon finally forming over the north of the continent as more homes were lost to furious fires raging in above-40s temperatures and powerful hot winds yesterday.

Firefighters have battled two Christchurch house fires overnight - one of them considered suspicious.

A Kawakawa family is living in temporary accommodation after a New Year's Eve fire sparked by a falling power line left their home uninhabitable.

Three Napier brothers ran through a shower of hot, falling ash to wake neighbours and rescue an elderly woman from her burning home.

Coal-fired power stations in Australia emit around 200 million tonnes of CO2a year. This does not include emissions from our coal exports.

Australia's bushfire crisis has resumed with a fury after a brief weekend respite, yesterday claiming at least 33 homes in northern New South Wales with fears for more losses.

Northland firefighters helping battle devastating bushfires in Tasmania have had to deal with another natural phenomenon - an earthquake.

Farmers and landowners of "tinderbox dry" land on the outskirts of Christchurch should soon receive a reprieve with rain due to sweep in tomorrow.