An Auckland firefighter who has been to "thousands" of call-outs has found out in the worst way possible what it's like to be on the other end of the emergency.

An elderly man may have died after getting "excited" by big flames during a farm burn-off in rural Canterbury last year, a coroner has heard.

Flames and plumes of black smoke erupted from the 100,000-litre tank and debris was strewn hundreds of metres.

An explosion "like a sonic boom" sent debris flying 100m through the air and killed one person in South Auckland today.

A large forest fire south of Dunedin, near the small village of Waipori Falls, is believed to be under control.

Hamilton firefighters had to intervene between a couple who started arguing after a fire began in their car.

A faulty dryer caused a fire in a rural Waikato home last night but it's appliance accomplice - the handy washing machine - helped douse the flames.

Occupants of an Auckland apartment block escaped serious injury overnight, after a fire broke out in the unit.

A suspicious blaze in a 100-year-old school building follows six previous incidents of vandalism since March this year.

The Fire Service were called to Central Otago Wastebusters on Boundary Rd in Alexandra just after 8pm and arrived to find the building "well ablaze".

Residents were among those who tried to save their screaming neighbours from a fatal house fire which is believed to have claimed the lives of an adult and child.

Students and staff were back on deck at South Westland Area School today, five days after fire destroyed a senior block at the Hari Hari school.

Tyres were placed under two Hamilton school buildings and set alight in the second arson attack on the school in six years.

Fire Service spokesman David Meikle said three crews went to the blaze just before 5.30am.

Fire investigators were today sifting through the charred remains of a classroom block gutted by fire at Hari Hari early last night.

Spontaneous combustion is believed to have triggered a large fire at an Auckland Laundromat this morning.

Nathan Jacobs had been away from his Arrowtown home for only about 20 minutes last night, before returning to find three fire crews dousing it in water.

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.

A woman who died after she was badly burned in a Christchurch house fire last week has been named.

The occupants of a Waikato house may have had a narrow escape overnight after a fire ripped through the building.

Owners of a house in Ohai will return to find their home ravaged by fire, after a blaze tore through the property early this morning.

Firefighters are trying to contain a fire in a shed at Matamata, which is full of palm kernel.

A woman badly burned in a Christchurch house fire last week has died.

Fifteen fire trucks are currently battling flames at a two storey house in the Coromandel.

A group of 15 New Zealand firefighters will fly out tonight to help contain wildfires that are burning uncontrollably in the United States.

Fire fighters are at the scene of a blaze in Cathedral Square in Christchurch. Six fire trucks were called to the scene at about 12.23pm.

The pigs died in a blaze at a piggery north of Ngaruawahia.

Emergency services were called out to an address in Auckland after reports of an explosion in a garage fire.

A woman badly burned in a Christchurch house fire remains in a critical condition in hospital.