A battery charger has been identified as the cause of the blaze, Southern region fire investigator Mike Cahill, of Invercargill, said.

Firefighters were called to a large blaze at a tow-bar and automotive accessories factory in Wiri tonight.

A grandmother risked her own life to save six children from her burning home in Gisborne last night, with the family 'moments from catastrophe'.

Three workers are missing after the huge blaze on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico that killed four workers and burned for hours.

A suburban house is on fire in this afternoon and emergency services are at the scene.

Fire crews are fighting a blaze at Northland's Whakapara Marae.

Police are investigating a suspicious fire in Dannevirke about 11pm yesterday.

A family who lost all of their worldly possessions in a car fire while relocating to the North Island is appealing for help to "kick-start" their lives again.

Oil leaked from a storage pipe and caught fire along Auckland’s waterfront this morning, attracting a large emergency response.

A fault in an electronic communications system used by emergency services is putting the lives of frontline workers at immediate risk, a union warns.

Firefighters are battling a large chicken shed fire on the East Cape.

A teenager is in hospital with burns to back after agreeing to be set alight with aerosols and flammable liquids at a party in Sydney's north.

Police say a petrol bomb was used in the arson of a police car in Pukekohe last Friday.

One person was seriously burned and taken to hospital after a house fire this morning.

A truck that caught fire early this morning, is causing traffic delays on State Highway 27 near Morrinsville.

Christchurch firefighters took an hour to bring a fire under control that broke out on the second floor of a high rise building this morning.

A piece of equipment on a drilling truck which caught fire caused smoke to pour down a central Wellington street earlier today.

A large fire has engulfed a cool store and pack house building near Te Puke overnight.

Police could only stand back and watch as fire destroyed a 10m yacht south of Auckland yesterday.

Police are investigating a suspected arson at a Woodville property where a man was killed last month.

A fire at a Westfield mall in West Auckland that sparked a mass evacuation has been extinguished, with the mall reopened to the public.

Two men have been arrested and charged with arson over two Wellington fires in the last few months.

Both places were called home by the vast foreign workforce drawn to the United Arab Emirates. Both caught fire last week.The similarities end there.

A house has been destroyed by fire in the central Auckland suburb of Onehunga this morning.

A helicopter is being used to dampen hot spots following an eight hectare fire in the Wellington suburb of Wainuiomata overnight.

A couple of close calls prove life is a series of tests, writes Steve Braunias.

A fire has ripped through the Torch in Dubai - one of the tallest residential buildings in the world.