Environment Minister Peter Garrett yesterday continued to fight for his political life.

A 14-year-old youth will appear in court charged with arson after a huge fire north of Wellington forced over a hundred people to evacuate their homes.

The Fire Service believes a fire this morning at a west Auckland day care centre was deliberately lit.

Australians are holding a national day of mourning today for the 173 people who died a year earlier in the country's worst wildfire disaster.

Almost a year after the Black Saturday bushfires devastated Victoria, two teenage boys have been charged with lighting the Bendigo blaze.