Neighbours say the 42-year-old was burned in her Whakatu house, 5km north of Hastings, after a day-long domestic dispute on Christmas Day.

Fatal accidents, breakdowns and huge traffic backlogs have plagued the first four days of the official Christmas road toll period.

Neighbours heard screams that "somebody was on fire" before emergency services discovered a badly burned couple on Christmas Day.

TV blogger Paul Casserly looks back at 60 years of safety films warning of all the ways to die in New Zealand.

'Atrocious conditions' were partially to blame for a horror crash in Marlborough this afternoon, which killed two tourists.

A hoax caller who rang 111 and said someone had drowned at Rotorua's Tikitapu (Blue Lake) put emergency services at risk as they rushed to the scene.

Northland's grim road toll continues after a woman was killed when a logging truck, trying to avoid another vehicle, rolled and crushed the car she was a passenger in.

A Fire Service has disagreed strongly with some earlier witnesses at the CTV inquest that there was confusion over leadership on February 22 last year.

A man in his twenties is dead after falling six stories onto the crowded floor of the Owen Glenn Building at Auckland University.