Auckland Mayor Len Brown has ordered an urgent report assessing ways to save the iconic St James Theatre.

An 11-year-old boy impaled at an Auckland school this morning asked his rescuers not to amputate his leg as they cut him off a school fence. He slipped while climbing the fence but is unlikely to suffer permanent damage.

Far North fire victim Hugh David Aarons yelled for help as his Kaitaia flat burned and neighbours frantically tried to break down his door to get him out.

The fire that killed a 51-year-old Kaitaia man this morning was the second blaze in the same unit this year, police say.

Two men have been arrested and charged in connection with a fire at the Coromandel Police Station over Easter.

The burnt body of a person who died in a fire on Auckland's North Shore last night may take several days to be identified.

The body of a person who died in a fire in a flat on Auckland's North Shore yesterday will be removed today.

Coromandel town police officers are baffled as to why anyone would want to set fire to their small station.

Concerns are held for the health of three detainees on the roof of Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre.

Police have named the 25-year-old woman who died as a result of a house fire in Paraparaumu yesterday morning.

The flatmate of a 25-year-old mother who died in a house fire in Paraparaumu last night has described how she tried to save her.