At least two classrooms at South Westland Area School, in the small West Coast town of Hari Hari, were destroyed in a fire last night.

Solid Energy acting chairman Andy Coupe admitted it was "unlikely" that any sale, or sales, would cover its outstanding debt.

Drink-drivers tested police patience throughout the West Coast at the weekend.

Mr Key said Solid Energy had $300 million of outstanding debt and was in a "precarious position".

Illicit drug use is rampant in the West Coast workforce, with methamphetamine the drug of choice, according to recent tests.

More than 20 jobs will be lost when Downer closes its West Coast offices at the end of August.

Human remains were found in the rubble of the ruined remote property yesterday.

The shed was "completely destroyed" by the time the fire was discovered, police said.

Firefighters are trying to confirm if anybody was stuck inside a building on fire on the West Coast this morning.

Catholics are being called en-masse to attend Mass in Ross to save the town's last remaining church from closure.

Two women seen showing "extreme intoxication" in a Greymouth bar has led to the premises losing its licence to sell alcohol.

The owner of a helicopter that "rolled over" on take-off in the mountains behind Hari Hari on Saturday, seriously injuring the pilot, does not yet know what caused the crash.

Safety inspectors are being sent to the remote site of a chopper crash which seriously injured a young pilot on the South Island's West Coast at the weekend.

A decade-long project to save endangered giant snails from a West Coast coal mine will finish next year.

Bottom-trawling fisheries have been banned from a 10,000 hectare area off the West Coast of the South Island.

The woman who put Gloriavale Christian Community guru Hopeful Christian in prison for indecent assault has had her name suppression lifted so she can tell her story.

Two people were killed on the roads in separate incidents during the weekend.

A literary tour of the West Coast takes Bronwyn Sell on a journey that traverses brooding landscapes.

Pike River Mine survivor Daniel Rockhouse says he was humbled to accept an award for bravery at an investiture ceremony at Government House this morning.

Elisabeth Easther booked a trip to the wild West Coast to fritter away a weekend.

The parents of a 15-month-old Greymouth boy who died in Auckland’s Starship Hospital last month have been spoken to by police.

A Rotomanu farmer who stood trial in March for his part in the starvation and death of nearly 800 cows has been found guilty.

The ramifications of a further 113 job losses at Stockton will reverberate right down the West Coast and all the way to the Port of Lyttelton, MP Damien O'Connor says.

Solid Energy did all it could to avoid job cuts on the West Coast but the coal market made it too difficult, Bill English says.

The West Coast mining industry has been dealt a heavy blow today, with 113 jobs to go at Solid Energy's Stockton mine.