Meanwhile, a passing motorist stamped out a vegetation fire near Peter Snell Rd and Tamingi St in Ruakaka before firefighters arrived at about 10.10pm.
The only fireworks-related fire callout in the Far North occurred just before 9pm in Spains Rd, Awanui, where a 100m-long strip of roadside pampas grass caught alight.
Kaitaia deputy chief fire officer Craig Rogers said he was confident the blaze, which had started in two places, had been caused by fireworks. Two fire crews had spent an hour putting it out.
The volunteers had just returned to the station when they were called to Pukepoto Rd in Kaitaia, where a car fire was moments away from spreading to a house. Mr Rogers said the car, which was parked in a driveway beside a house, was ablaze when firefighters arrived. Flames licking the house had melted the spouting. A family asleep inside was woken by the sound of the car burning.
Initially it was suspected the car had been deliberately torched but that was later ruled out by police, a spokesman saying the fire had started under the bonnet.
