Staff of Signlink Graphics in Hokitika were in clean-up mode this morning after a blaze that took firefighters more than two hours to extinguish.

A mother was found dead on her living room floor after a nurse cancelled an ambulance that was just one minute away.

A scrub fire in Upper Hutt has forced homes to be evacuated, a firefighter to be hospitalised and roads to be closed.

The Waimate Hotel in Manaia, south of New Plymouth, has been destroyed by fire.

The Waimate Hotel in Manaia, south of New Plymouth, has been destroyed by fire early this morning.

A woman was trapped in her car for over an hour after a crash in Dairy Flat this evening.

A child remains in a critical condition and a woman has been transferred to Auckland City Hospital after two people died in a crash in rural Waikato.

New Zealand's main ambulance service has warned it will need to hike charges or stop going to some emergencies.

The head of St John Ambulance has warned the Government it will stop sending some ambulances within two years because it can't guarantee patients' safety.

Marlene Dormer died as a lone ambulance officer struggled to keep her alive. Her daughter tells Martin Johnston that it's time to change an unsafe system.

Up to 12 fire trucks have been called out to the blaze on Ballymore Drive, in Pinehill, just after 4pm.

A woman who couldn't make a phone call asked for help on Reddit and a Kiwi reader came to the rescue.

A man in his 60s was flown to hospital after a near-drowning at New Chums Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula this afternoon.

An American couple involved in a fatal crash in South Waikato had been travelling on New Zealand roads for only a few days before the collision.

A Police spokeswoman said the suspicious item in Mission Bay was a small blue chilly bin with suspicious contents.

The tragedy happened off the Ahipara Beach end of 90 Mile Beach about 4.40pm.

A Coastguard skipper has described finding the man who clung to a petrol container for seven hours overnight after his boat capsized.

Emergency services were called to the speedway about 7pm, where the New Zealand Midget Championship is taking place this weekend.

A man was flown to hospital after being "bowled over by a cow" in Northland this afternoon, emergency services say.

A 56-year-old woman who spent a traumatic 14 hours trapped inside a lift "drew pictures and wrote poems" to keep herself calm.

Three people have been pulled out of the water in Raglan, after their boat overturned on the bar.

A Rotorua woman has been winched out of the Whakarewarewa Forest after a serious mountain bike accident.

Fire services have extinguished a grass fire in Onehunga which had consumed around 20 square metres of land.

A gas main has ruptured, closing a road in the Auckland suburb of St Johns.

Emergency services were called to the blaze at Carlucci Land in Happy Valley about 5pm.

One man is dead and another is in custody following a suspected homicide just north of Whangarei tonight.

One person was seriously injured this evening in a crash north of Wellington that closed the busy road in and out of the capital.