Te Aroha locals are supporting the families of workers who lost their jobs when the local meatworks went up in flames.

'They're calling it a seasonal lay-off which is bull,' a worker at Silver Fern Farm's fire-hit Te Aroha factory says.

About 160 of the 350 workers at Silver Fern Farms' Waikato beef slaughter plant at Te Aroha are likely to only be paid a minimum wage until Christmas.

The 200 workers left jobless after a massive fire gutted a Waikato freezing works remain cautiously optimistic.

Sparks from a contractor's saw are believed to have ignited the fire that gutted a Waikato freezing works.

An operation has begun to extinguish the fire coming from the vent shaft of the Pike River mine and cool the surrounding concrete pad, using water pumped up from a nearby creek.

The beef processing plant badly damaged by fire at Te Aroha, near Hamilton, overnight may be rebuilt into a world-class plant, owner Silver Fern Farms says.

Photos from the fire at the Silver Fern Farms freezing works in Te Aroha, Waikato.

It could take weeks for a GAG unit to put out a coal fire in the Pike River mine, police say.

A man was seriously injured yesterday in a house fire, caused by what authorities say was a P-lab explosion.

The strength of the West Coast community will help it overcome its collective grief over the deaths of the 29 men who died in the Pike River mine tragedy, Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand said today at the memorial service in Greymouth.

John Key today delivered a personal message to the mothers whose children have been left fatherless as a result of the Pike River mine tragedy. His was one of several moving tributes at today's Remembrance Service.

Several thousand people have filled Greymouth’s Omoto Racecourse and numerous MPs and city mayors have taken their seats on the main stage for the Pike River Official Remembrance service

A GAG unit at the Pike River mine appears to be working with early indications a fire is dissipating.

Much of NZ will come to a standstill today as the victims of the Pike River tragedy are remembered.

A jet engine brought in to make the Pike River mine safe is now in place. Rescue services are hopeful it will be in use tonight so the process to recover the remains of the 29 trapped miners can begin.