The fire burning in Matai in the Far North is no longer a threat to people or their homes.

Five helicopters with monsoon buckets have been dispatched to the Far North in a bid to bring a large scrub fire under control.

New Year's Eve fireworks are believed to have sparked a fire on Mt Wellington's volcanic cone - and in the Far North where buildings and campers were also under threat.

The Fire Service is responding to multiple reports of a grass fire in Christchurch.

A funeral will be held for an Auckland man's son, wife and mother-in-law this week after a house fire claimed their lives and left

Fire crews are rushing to a scrub fire at Peria, just south of Mangonui in the Far North.

Firefighters are battling three scrub fires near Blenheim this afternoon.

The Department of Conservation is sending in helicopters this morning to deal with the remnants of a bush fire on the Coromandel.

Firefighters responding to reports of smoke at a multi-storey building are using thermal imaging cameras to find the source.

The inhabitants of a house that caught fire today escaped without injury.

Four fire crews are battling a blaze in the Lower Hutt suburb of Stokes Valley.

Fire crews remained on watch last night near the remains of a forest blaze near Dunedin.

One of four suspicious fires along a stretch of roadside west of Taupo this afternoon destroyed an area of native bush and came perilously close to a rural home.

Occupants in a Morrinsville house managed to flee before their house burned down this afternoon.

Firefighters spent more than an hour battling five small blazes in Taupo which they suspect were deliberately lit.

A man who survived an Auckland house fire that killed members of his family is showing signs of recovery in hospital, supporters say.

A man who survived an Auckland house fire that killed members of his family is showing signs of recovery in hospital, supporters say. Refugee

An elderly couple in Britain who wanted to show their young grandchildren a traditional German Christmas ended up burning their house down.

An 11-year-old girl who escaped the fatal house fire which claimed the lives of her mother, brother and grandmother is inconsolable with grief.

Police have serious concerns for the occupant of the Waverley home which was destroyed by a fire on Monday.

A fundraising effort has begun for a man whose wife, son and mother-in-law died in a fire yesterday.

A kitten who had been evading fire crews for weeks made a 'leap of faith' from a towering palm tree yesterday while trying to make a run for it again.

A truck used to destroy sensitive documents catches fire outside the Treasury building in Wellington this morning.

A person has been taken to hospital after a fire in a block of flats in Invercargill overnight.

Three generations of the family of a prominent New Zealand refugee advocate have died in fatal house fire in South Auckland earlier today.

After extensive fire damage the Greymouth fishing boat Te Aroha has risen from the ashes and is back trawling off the West Coast.

Children are feared dead after a blaze in a South Auckland home claims three lives.

A vehicle carrying gas bottles was driven into the headquarters of the Australian Christian Lobby in Canberra last night.

A neighbour says she can't get the sound of cries out of her head after a house fire killed three people in South Auckland this morning.

Burglars snuck into the destroyed two-story house and stole the only salvageable items including a TV, a cabinet and food.